Breast Cancer The Second Most Common Cancer - 2975 Words

Project Background (3 pages) Breast Cancer Female breast cancer is the second most common cancer in the world with over 1.6 million cases diagnosed in 2012 (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012). Deaths from breast cancer within Australia have increased by 380% from 2003 to 2012 (ABS, 2012)(Smith et al., 2012). An individual’s risk of developing breast cancer increases dramatically with age until 50 where it plateaus giving women a 1:8 lifetime risk (Kamangar et al., 2006)(Davies, 2012). There are several varieties of breast cancer with the most frequent being invasive ductal carcinoma (Fernandez-Vega et al., 2013). Invasive ductal carcinomas begin in the duct before ductal hyper-proliferation and invasion of the surrounding breast†¦show more content†¦Treatment failure is not uncommon with 30% of breast cancer patients having no improvement following current treatments (Lendorf et al., 2011). A better understanding of the genomic and biological patterns associated with breast cancers may provide the key to improving diagnosis as well as management and treatment of this disease. Tumorigenesis and ECM ECM and Cell Niche Breast tissue is comprised of a basement membrane and epithelial cells which are located within an adipose and mesenchymal stroma (RO). The stroma consists of a diverse range of cells including endothelial cells, leukocytes, fibroblasts and many others (Polyak, 2007). The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a major component of the cancer microenvironment or niche consisting of collagen, laminin, fibronectin, proteoglycans and growth factors, including HER2 (Yoneda et al., 2012)(Reference). Invasive carcinomas unlike non-invasive carcinomas extend into the surrounding ECM and tend to induce modifications in the adjacent stroma (LR) (Fernandez-Vega et al., 2013). Several studies have shown the microenvironment and ECM are reservoirs of cellular and non-cellular materials, which help, modulate growth, survival, motility and invasive behaviour (LR)(Maeda et al., 2004). Hence studies on tumour epithelial cells and their niche are of current interest, as these interactions with regards to tumorigenesis have not fully been