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Emerging Role of SOX Proteins in Breast Cancer Development and Maintenance

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Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The SOX genes encode a family of more than 20 transcription factors that are critical regulators of embryogenesis and developmental processes and, when aberrantly expressed, have been shown to contribute to tumor development and progression in both an oncogenic and tumor suppressive role. Increasing evidence demonstrates that the SOX proteins play essential roles in multiple cellular processes that mediate or contribute to oncogenic transformation and tumor progression. In the context of breast cancer, SOX proteins function both as oncogenes and tumor suppressors and have been shown to be associated with tumor stage and grade and poor prognosis. Experimental evidence demonstrates that a subset of SOX proteins regulate critical aspects of breast cancer biology including cancer stemness and multiple signaling pathways leading to altered cell proliferation, survival, and tumor development; EMT, cell migration and metastasis; as well as other tumor associated characteristics. This review will summarize the role of SOX family members as important mediators of tumorigenesis in breast cancer, with an emphasis on the triple negative or basal-like subtype of breast cancer, as well as examine the therapeutic potential of these genes and their downstream targets.

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Acknowledgements

While we have attempted to include all relevant studies in this manuscript, we apologize to those investigators whose work was not included due to spatial limitations. We would like to thank the members of our lab for critical reading of this manuscript. This work is funded by post-doctoral fellowship DHFS-17PCC-002 from the New Jersey Commission for Cancer Research to G.A.M. and from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (CA166228), the V Foundation for Cancer Research (V2016-013), and the New Jersey Health Foundation (PC-17-18) to M.L.G.

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  1. Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, 195 Little Albany Street, CINJ 4558, New Brunswick, NJ, 08903, USA

    Gaurav A. Mehta, Pooja Khanna & Michael L. Gatza

  2. Department of Radiation Oncology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Gaurav A. Mehta, Pooja Khanna & Michael L. Gatza

  3. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Gaurav A. Mehta, Pooja Khanna & Michael L. Gatza

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Mehta, G.A., Khanna, P. & Gatza, M.L. Emerging Role of SOX Proteins in Breast Cancer Development and Maintenance. J Mammary Gland Biol Neoplasia 24, 213–230 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10911-019-09430-6

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