ETS Transcription Factor Expression and Conversion During Prostate and Breast Cancer Progression

Abstract

ETS factors are known to act as positive or negative regulators of the expression of genes including those that control response to various signaling cascades, cellular proliferation, differentiation, hematopoiesis, apoptosis, adhesion, migration, invasion and metastasis, tissue remodeling, ECM composition and angiogenesis. During cancer progression, altered ETS gene expression disrupts the regulated control of many of these biological processes. Although it was originally observed that specific ETS factors function either as positive or negative regulators of transcription, it is now evident that the same ETS factor may function in reciprocal fashions, reflecting promoter and cell context specificities. This report will present a discussion of ETS factor expression during prostate and breast cancer progression and its functional roles in epithelial cell phenotypes.