Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer and the fourth cause of cancer death among women worldwide. Steroid (estrogens, progestogens, androgens, and glucocorticoid), thyroid, TSH, prolactin, and growth/insulin receptors signaling pathways activated by their hormones have a major role in the mammary gland development and in the etiology, and progression of breast cancer. Although classification of breast cancers is defined by hormone receptor expression (estrogen receptor-ER and/or progesterone receptor-PgR), there is evidence indicating that estradiol and progesterone are not the unique hormones driving breast cancer progression.

The success of antitumor therapies is often limited by the development of drug resistance by tumors in breast cancer. During the last years, the role of different hormones has been unraveled in biological aspects to regulate tumor progression, metastasis, and treatment response, as well as their receptors’ crosstalk. In particular, it has been demonstrated that the crosstalk between thyroid hormones and estrogen receptors, progesterone receptor and prolactine in Luminal A and B breast cancer subtypes, as well as between prolactine and Her2 in triple negative breast cancer. Moreover, glucocorticoids and their receptor have been linked to metastasis, and tumor progression having a special importance in the relationship between tumor and tumor microenvironment, as well as in the modulation of metabolism, affecting the response to treatment.

Several studies are focusing on the expression of hormone receptors as biomarkers of survival or response to treatment, though deeper research is needed. For example, it has also been found that breast cancer patients with higher insulin receptor expression had a longer survival time than patients with lower insulin receptor expression. On the other hand, the expression of receptors such as androgen, thyroid, TSH, LH, and FSH are redefining triple negative breast tumors. For this reason, the study of the expression of hormonal receptors for estrogen, progesterone, androgen, glucocorticoids, thyroid, TSH, insulin or prolactin, as well as the molecular mechanism induced by their hormones, could have a prognostic value in breast cancer.

In this Research Topic, we will focus on new functional roles and molecular mechanisms of steroid hormones, as well as insulin and prolactin in breast cancer progression and response to treatment.

This topic welcomes review and research articles in the following, but not limited to, these aspects:
Molecular mechanism triggered by classical and non-classical hormone receptors and their hormones involved in:
1- Breast cancer tumorigenesis and progression,
2- Microenvironment and metastasis;
3- Metabolism and drug/therapy response;
4- And novel molecular signatures involving hormone receptors with a possible prognostic value for the clinic.

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Frontiers in Endocrinology

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