Puberty Differentiation and Breast Cancer Risk
Abstract
Breast cancer is the second most common cause of cancer mortality among women in the United States, and as such it is a disease with substantial clinical relevance. Several lines of evidence, including both epidemiological studies in humans and carcinogen studies in rodents, have suggested that puberty represents a period of enhanced susceptibility to carcinogenesis in the breast. We hypothesize that a change in the epithelial cell subtypes present during puberty accounts for the altered susceptibility to carcinogenic insult. We have investigated epithelial lineage in the developing murine breast by using retrovirally tagged mammary epithelial cells to repopulate mammary gland fat pads. We have also generated noncrosshybridizing pools of cDNA which are characteristic of pubertal versus adult mammary gland in order to identify genes which can function as markers for epithelial cell subtypes characteristic of puberty. Investigation of the relationship between puberty, differentiation, and breast cancer risk may yield fundamental insights into mechanisms of carcinogenesis.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADB233106
Entities
People
- Lewis A Chodosh
- Stephen Master
Organizations
- University of Pennsylvania