Recent studies have highlighted the possible involvement of
chemokines and their receptors in
breast cancer progression and
metastasis.
Chemokines and their receptors constitute a superfamily of signalling factors whose prognosis value in
breast cancer progression remains unclear. We will examine here the expression pattern of
chemokines and their receptors in
mammary gland physiology and
carcinogenesis. The nature of the cells producing
chemokines or harboring
chemokine receptors appears to be crucial in certain conditions for example, the infiltration of the
primary tumor by
leukocytes and
angiogenesis. In addition,
chemokines, their receptors and the interaction with
glycosaminoglycan (
GAGs) are key players in the homing of cancer cells to distant
metastasis sites. Several lines of evidence, including in vitro and in vivo models, suggest that the
mechanism of action of
chemokines in cancer development involves the modulation of proliferation,
apoptosis, invasion,
leukocyte recruitment or
angiogenesis. Furthermore, we will discuss the regulation of
chemokine network in
tumor neovascularity by decoy receptors. The reasons accounting for the deregulation of
chemokines and
chemokine receptors expression in
breast cancer are certainly crucial for the comprehension of
chemokine role in
breast cancer and are in several cases linked to
estrogen receptor status. The targeting of
chemokines and
chemokine receptors by
antibodies,
small molecule antagonists, viral
chemokine binding proteins and
heparins appears as promising tracks to develop therapeutic strategies. Thus there is significant interest in developing strategies to antagonize the
chemokine function, and an opportunity to interfere with
metastasis, the leading cause of death in most patients.
