Full Description
Hormonal carcinogenesis is an important and controversial area of research. In addition to accelerating existing cancers, can hormones play the role of primary carcinogens? And how do genetic factors influence hormone-related cancer risk? This work addresses these questions. During the last few decades of the 20th century, cancer research focused on external environmental causes (for example, tobacco smoke, viruses, asbestos). With the advent of genetic sequencing techniques, we are just now beginning to understand how the body's internal environment (that is, the hormones and growth factors that determine normal development) influences cancer etiology and prevention. From molecular insights to clinical analyses, this volume provides state-of-the-art information on the complex interactions between hormones and genes and cancer. The epidemiology and molecular endocrinology of prostate, breast, uterine, ovarian and testicular cancer are detailed in this timely treatise.
Contents
1. Introduction and background; 2. Biosynthesis, transport and metabolism of steroid hormones; 3. The nuclear receptor superfamily; 4. Genomic approaches to the genetics of hormone-responsive cancer; 5. Breast cancer: epidemiology and molecular endocrinology; 6. The impact of exogenous hormone use on breast cancer risk; 7. An overview of genetic predisposition and the search for predisposing genes for breast cancer; 8. Estrogen biosynthesis gene: P450 Aromatase; 9. Estrogen metabolism genes: HSD17B1 and HSD17B2; 10. Breast cancer: intervention in BRCA1 and BRCA2 families; 11. Implications of hormones and hormonal risk factors on screening strategies; 12. Hormonal chemoprevention with Tamoxifen and selective estrogen receptor modulators; 13. Other hormonal prevention strategies; 14. Progression from hormone-dependent to hormone-independent breast cancer; 15. Prostate cancer: epidemiology and molecular endocrinology; 16. Androgen receptor signalling in prostate cancer; 17. Hereditary prostate cancer: the search for major genes and the role of genes involved in androgen action; 18. Androgen-independent prostate cancer progression: mechanistic insights; 19. Hormonal therapies for prostate cancer; 20. Endometrial cancer: epidemiology and molecular endocrinology; 21. Ovarian cancer: epidemiology and molecular endocrinology; 22. Testicular cancer: epidemiology and molecular endocrinology
