Breast cancer resistance towards tamoxifen and some research ideas

Tamoxifen, an anticancer drug for breast cancer, can reduce the recurrence rate by about 50%. However, over 33% of the patients receiving adjuvant treatment with this drug show relapse within 15 years of follow-up making about 25% of all breast cancer patients.

Researchers are working hard to understand the mechanism behind the resistance of breast cancer against this drug. Several gene predictors, proteins and pathways have been suggested in the development of resistance.

Moreover, researchers are also trying to find reliable predictive biomarkers for tamoxifen resistance. You can start your work from here. Even a theoretical presentation could help a lot.

In a study, researchers have reported that retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARA) is most probably involved in tamoxifen resistance and can be a potential biomarker. Still we have a point of research as “no RARA-selective compound has been tested for treatment of endocrine-resistant BC (breast cancer).” Why not start research on the compound that could target high RARA expression?

Reference:

Henrik J. Johansson, Betzabe C. Sanchez, Filip Mundt, Jenny Forshed, Aniko Kovacs, Elena Panizza, Lina Hultin-Rosenberg, Bo Lundgren, Ulf Martens, Gyöngyvér Máthé, Zohar Yakhini, Khalil Helou, Kamilla Krawiec, Lena Kanter, Anders Hjerpe, Olle Stål (2013). Retinoic acid receptor alpha is associated with tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer Nature Communications DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3175