Multifunctional roles of insulin-like growth factor binding protein 5 in breast cancer
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* Corresponding author: Wei Zhang wzhang@mdanderson.org
1 Department of Medical Biology, Marmara University, School of Medicine, 34668 Istanbul, Turkey
2 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin 300060, PR China
3 Breast Cancer Prevention and Treatment Key Lab of Ministry of Education, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin 300060, PR China
4 Department of Pathology, Unit 85, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030, USA
5 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin 300060, PR China
Breast Cancer Research 2008, 10:212 doi:10.1186/bcr2116
Published: 11 August 2008Abstract
The insulin-like growth factor axis, which has been shown to protect cells from apoptosis, plays an essential role in normal cell physiology and in cancer development. The family of insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs) has been shown to have a diverse spectrum of functions in cell growth, death, motility, and tissue remodeling. Among the six IGFBP family members, IGFBP-5 has recently been shown to play an important role in the biology of breast cancer, especially in breast cancer metastasis; however, the exact mechanisms of action remain obscure and sometimes paradoxical. An in-depth understanding of IGFBP-5 would shed light on its potential role as a target for breast cancer therapeutics.