Gene Regulation and Signal Transduction in Hormone Linked Cancers

Sporadic cancers of breast, endometrium, ovary and prostate are considered to be hormone-related and are proposed to share a distinct mechanism of carcinogenesis. Cadmium (Cd) has recently been reported to possess endocrine disrupting properties and has been proposed to be a potent metalloestrogen. Both in vivo and in vitro studies have demonstrated the changes in the expression level of cellular proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes p53, c-jun and c-myc in the presence of Cd. However the findings are inconsistent and inconclusive.Findings suggest that ER-mediated intracellular signaling pathways may be involved in the biological activity of Cd.Furthermore, study contributes to the conflict data obtained in different in vivo and in vitro models used to investigate the Cd-induced changes in gene expression at different dose groups for tumor suppressor gene p53, IERGs (c-myc, c-fos, c-jun), HSP 32, negative regulator of tumor suppressor gene Mdm2 and SP1 and p38.As Cd is associated with the risks of hormone-linked cancers and all people have a lifelong exposure to Cd via food,so this is of public concern. The study provides very limited information on the biological activity of cadmium in an in vivo setting.However, more research is needed to clarify the specific signaling pathways involved in Cd-mediated responses.