Figure 4. The classical pathway showing E2 and DHT action.

In this scheme, AR induces metastasis by regulating ERα transcriptome via recruiting ERα to the promoters of the genes responsible for the metastatic phenotypes. (1) The left side indicates that when E₂ binds to ERα it (ERα) it gets recruited to the promoter of ER-responsive genes (EREs). Similarly, DHT stimulates AR activation and its recruitment to the specific DNA motifs. (2) Since AR can also binds and compete to EREs and as well as it can facilitate ER binding via recruitment of other pioneer factors like FOXA1 or long-range promoter-enhancer interaction (need to be further research). (3) In this way, the associated gene expression changes may induce breast cancer phenotypes and its subsequent metastasis in post-menopausal women with breast cancer patients.