Somatostatin receptors and breast cancer

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Published on Monday, 15 July 2013

Abstract

The study of breast carcinogenesis is complicated by the heterogeneity of the disease.

One way of simplifying is to subdivide these tumors into clinically relevant subgroups.

There are indications that breast carcinomas, of which some express the somatostatin receptor (SS-R), can be divided this way.

Expression of somatostatin receptors (SS-R's) in human primary breast cancer has a very high incidence.

This can be demonstrated by in vitro autoradiography and in vivo by somatostatin receptor scintigraphy. However the clinical significance of somatostatin receptor expression in human breast cancer needs to be investigated.

In this review article we summarize the current understanding of the functional role of somatostatin receptors in human breast cancer.

Their relationship with neuroendocrine differentiation of the cancers and genetic and patient characteristics, the role of in vivo SS-R's visualization, and the possible medical and radiotherapeutic implications of these findings are discussed.

 

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See also:

- Somatostatin in oncology, the overlooked evidences;

- Evaluation of the safety and efficacy of the first-line treatment with somatostatin combined with melatonisn, retinoids, vitamin D3, and low doses of cyclophosphamide in 20 cases of breast cancer: a preliminary report;

- The Di Bella Method (DBM) improved survival, objective response and performance status in a retrospective observational clinical study on 122 cases of breast cancer;

- Complete objective response to biological therapy of plurifocal breast carcinoma.