REVIEW

Deciphering the molecular and physiological connections between obesity and breast cancer

  • Zhao HE ,
  • Andy B. CHEN ,
  • Gen-Sheng FENG
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  • Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, and Section of Molecular Biology, Division of Biological Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0864, USA

Received date: 07 Jan 2011

Accepted date: 14 Feb 2011

Published date: 01 Jun 2011

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

Obesity is associated with the higher risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. The leptin signaling pathway is recognized to primarily regulate energy balance and associated with breast cancer. Furthermore, the estrogen signaling pathway plays a critical role in breast carcinogenesis. In this review, we discuss how obesity is linked to breast cancer via cross-talk of leptin and estrogen pathways.

Cite this article

Zhao HE , Andy B. CHEN , Gen-Sheng FENG . Deciphering the molecular and physiological connections between obesity and breast cancer[J]. Frontiers in Biology, 2011 , 6(3) : 206 -212 . DOI: 10.1007/s11515-011-1138-2

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the members of the Feng laboratory for helpful discussion, and insightful comments by the reviewers. Work in the authors’ laboratory is currently supported by NIH grants (R01DK073945 and R01DK075916) and a new concept award from DOD (W81XWH-10-1-0480).
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