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Molecular Mechanisms of Early Breast Cancer

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Management of Early Stage Breast Cancer

Abstract

The molecular mechanism of any cancer includes complex alterations of genetic, epigenetic, transcriptomic, and proteomic make-up and evolution of any cell type. The process can extend from understanding the driver and passenger genetic alterations to actionable alterations in coherent cell signaling pathways. One of the major factors for complexity is molecular heterogeneity in cancer. Molecular heterogeneity can be within different clones of cell types representing different molecular changes in the same tumor tissue (intra-tumoral or clonal) or between different tumor types giving different molecular patterns in the same tissue or organ (inter-tumoral). Inter-tumoral heterogeneity has been further understood as different molecular profiles of two metastatic lesions of the same primary (inter-metastatic) or different clones of one metastatic lesion of a primary tumor (intra-metastatic), and at an organismal level, heterogeneity can be due to different molecular profiles of the same tumor in different subjects (inter-patient) (Vogelstein et al., Science 339:1546–58, 2013). With the availability of high-resolution cellular imaging, next-generation sequencing, and rapid multiomic experimental methods, currently, there has been a rapid expansion of knowledge on molecular changes happening in cancer cells, during the transformative initiation of normal cells to cancer cells, the evolution during natural history as well as treatment and finally the uncontrollable expansion and metastasis. In this chapter, we summarize the biology of breast cancer development, molecular classification, and subsequently molecular oncology of clinical significance and a note on hereditary breast cancers.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    OMIM: Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man is a comprehensive compendium of human genes and genetic phenotypes that is freely available over the internet at the website omim.org and updated daily. OMIM is authored by McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Molecular Oncology Laboratory, Department of Biochemistry, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kochi, Kerala, India

    Prasanth Ariyannur

  2. Department of Medical Oncology, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kochi, Kerala, India

    Vijay Kumar Srinivasalu

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  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, Kochi, Kerala, India

    Beena Kunheri

  2. Department of Breast and Gynecological Oncology, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, Kochi, Kerala, India

    D. K. Vijaykumar

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Ariyannur, P., Srinivasalu, V.K. (2021). Molecular Mechanisms of Early Breast Cancer. In: Kunheri, B., Vijaykumar, D.K. (eds) Management of Early Stage Breast Cancer. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6171-9_5

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