Sudhakar Jha

By Sudhakar Jha, Deepa Rajagopalan, Shainan Hora and Shweta Pradip Jadhav

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women worldwide. The risk of breast cancer in women increases with age, and this is partly attributable to the accumulation of genetic lesions. Growing evidence demonstrates the role played by epigenetic modifiers and the tumor microenvironment in contributing to the increased risk of breast cancer. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the epigenetic regulatory signatures that impact the well-studied signaling pathways in breast tissues. Additionally, we will also delve into the therapeutic and diagnostic potential of noncoding RNAs in breast cancer.

Part of the book: Breast Cancer

By Nicole S L Yeo-Teh, Yoshiaki Ito and Sudhakar Jha

Gene expression is tightly regulated via a myriad of mechanisms in the cell to allow canonical processes to occur. However, in the context of cancer, some of these mechanisms are dysregulated, and aberrant gene expression ensues. Some of the dysregulated mechanisms include changes to transcription factor activity, epigenetic marks (such as DNA methylation, histone modifications and chromatin state), or the stability of mRNA and protein. Disruption of these regulators would result changes in transcriptional landscape, affecting multiple pathways and eventually lead to continual cell proliferation and the formation of the tumor. Here, we discuss epigenetic factors that affect gene expression which are dysregulated in cancer, and summarize the therapeutic options available to target these factors.

Part of the book: Gene Expression and Regulation in Mammalian Cells

By Nishi Kumari, Kwok Kin Lee and Sudhakar Jha

The ubiquitin proteasome system is involved in a myriad of biological functions including cell cycle progression, intracellular signaling and protein degradation. As such, it is not surprising to find many components of the system misregulated in cancer. The clinical success of Bortezomib for treatment of multiple myeloma proves that targeting the ubiquitin proteasome system is valid and feasible. Here, a detailed examination of the strategies used to target the ubiquitin proteasome system in cancer is discussed. The inhibitors available, its targets, the cancer type and the developmental stage it is in are discussed.

Part of the book: Neoplasm

By Shainan Hora, Amit Kumar Pandey and Sudhakar Jha

Cancer biomarkers are emerging as important tools for disease diagnosis, prediction and prognosis. A significant number of studies have been reported in the field of biomarker discovery due to their potential as personalized targeted therapy. With the converging gap about their utilization as specific targets, studies have focused on identifying disease-specific biomarkers in different cancer types. This chapter provides a comprehensive overview about different cancer-associated biomarkers, their prevalence in different cancer types and their use as targeted therapy. Additionally, we provide an in-sight on the therapeutic and diagnostic potential of different noncoding RNAs as cancer biomarkers.

Part of the book: Neoplasm

By Kwok Kin Lee, Wee Joo Chng and Sudhakar Jha

Breast cancer treatment has improved rapidly through the years, starting from surgery, to hormonal therapy, to targeted therapy. Despite this, tumor metastasis remains the highest cause of breast cancer–related death. The current regime to deter metastasis is through adjuvant therapy, but such therapy frequently yields undesirable side effects. As such, prognostic markers for metastasis are important to stratify patients for adjuvant therapy so as to ameliorate the standard of living of patients with low metastatic potential. So far, only a few well-characterized prognostic biomarkers for metastasis are used in clinics. This chapter will cover both established and novel prognostic biomarkers for breast cancer metastasis and metastatic breast cancer prognosis. The potential of using these biomarkers as predictive biomarkers or new targeted therapy will also be discussed.

Part of the book: Cancer Metastasis