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Oestrogen regulation in breast cancer
Summary
Local oestrogen production within the breast is critically important for breast cancer progression. While the genetic factors that contribute to oestrogen production are fairly well understood, epigenetic factors are much less well studied.
Description
Development of breast cancer is characterised by a variety of genetic lesions including gene amplifications and deletions, point mutations, chromosomal rearrangements and overall aneuploidy.
One of the most common molecular alterations in cancer is epigenetic change. Epigenetics describes a trait that is heritable, yet not based upon a change in primary DNA sequence.
These epigenetic changes occur at a higher frequency than genetic changes, occur at defined regions in a gene, and most importantly are reversible upon treatment with pharmacological agents. DNA methylation is one well known epigenetic mechanism that has a clear synergy with alterations in gene regulation that is associated with the onset of a developing cancer.
This project will investigate the epigenetic regulation, including DNA methylation, of genes known to have an important role in breast cancer, including aromatase and LRH-1.
The project aims to identify changes in epigenetic status between normal and cancerous tissue to give a clearer understanding and development of future pharmacological agents.
Funding
National Health and Medical Research Council
Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium