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Review
. 2021 Mar 11:11:652266.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.652266. eCollection 2021.

Hypoxia in Breast Cancer-Scientific Translation to Therapeutic and Diagnostic Clinical Applications

Ying Zhang  1   2 , Hongyi Zhang  3 , Minghong Wang  4 , Thomas Schmid  5 , Zhaochen Xin  6 , Lora Kozhuharova  7 , Wai-Kin Yu  8 , Yuan Huang  8 , Fengfeng Cai  3 , Ewelina Biskup  1   2   9   10
Affiliations
Review

Hypoxia in Breast Cancer-Scientific Translation to Therapeutic and Diagnostic Clinical Applications

Ying Zhang et al. Front Oncol. .

Abstract

Breast cancer has been the leading cause of female cancer deaths for decades. Intratumoral hypoxia, mainly caused by structural and functional abnormalities in microvasculature, is often associated with a more aggressive phenotype, increased risk of metastasis and resistance to anti-malignancy treatments. The response of cancer cells to hypoxia is ascribed to hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) that activate the transcription of a large battery of genes encoding proteins promoting primary tumor vascularization and growth, stromal cell recruitment, extracellular matrix remodeling, cell motility, local tissue invasion, metastasis, and maintenance of the cancer stem cell properties. In this review, we summarized the role of hypoxia specifically in breast cancer, discuss the prognostic and predictive value of hypoxia factors, potential links of hypoxia and endocrine resistance, cancer hypoxia measurements, further involved mechanisms, clinical application of hypoxia-related treatments and open questions.

Keywords: biomarkers; breast cancer; hypoxia; hypoxia-induced factors; hypoxia-related treatment; oxidative stress; precision medicine.

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Conflict of interest statement

W-KY and YH were employed by the company Cellomics International Limited. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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