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. 2001 Mar;84(5):686–690. doi: 10.1054/bjoc.2000.1646

Anti-oestrogen resistant human breast cancer cell lines are more sensitive towards treatment with the vitamin D analogue EB1089 than parent MCF-7 cells

S S Larsen 1, I Heiberg 1, A E Lykkesfeldt 1
PMCID: PMC2363804  PMID: 11237391

Abstract

Most breast cancer patients treated with anti-oestrogens will eventually develop resistance towards treatment. Therefore it is important to find new therapeutic agents effective for treatment of patients relapsing on anti-oestrogen. The vitamin D analogue EB1089 (SeocalcitolTM) is a promising new agent for treatment of breast cancer patients with advanced disease, and in this study we show that two different anti-oestrogen-resistant human breast cancer cell lines are more sensitive towards treatment with EB1089, than the parent MCF-7 cell line. The two resistant cell lines both express a lower content of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2, and we suggest that this may explain the higher sensitivity towards EB1089. The importance of Bcl-2 for response to EB1089 is supported by our observation that oestradiol abrogates the effect of EB1089 in cell lines which increase Bcl-2 in response to oestradiol treatment. Overall these results indicate that treatment with SeocalcitolTMmay prove effective when patients become refractory to anti-oestrogen therapy, and that Bcl-2 may be used as a predictive marker. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign http://www.bjcancer.com

Keywords: MCF-7; anti-oestrogen resistance; ERα; Bcl-2; vitamin D analogue, EB1089

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Selected References

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