Estrogen Receptor Signaling in Cancer

Estrogen receptor signaling plays an important role not only in breast cancer but also in other cancers including ovarian cancer, prostate cancer and acute myeloid leukemia. This series of articles includes new findings of estrogen receptor co-regulators in breast and ovarian cancer with potential as novel targets for therapy. The major isoforms of estrogen receptor—namely estrogen receptor alpha and estrogen receptor beta—can have opposing functionality and these differing roles are described in reviews of estrogen signaling in prostate and ovarian cancers and acute myeloid leukemia. In breast cancer, mutated forms of the estrogen receptor can be selected for on endocrine treatment and frequently lead to treatment resistance while novel imaging techniques are being evaluated to monitor diagnosis and response to treatment. These developing research fields are overviewed.