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Pathway Description
Tamoxifen Anti-Cancer Action Pathway
Homo sapiens
Drug Action Pathway
Tamoxifen is an anticancer drug that is a selective estrogen receptor modulator also known as a non-steroidal anti-estrogen. It is used to treat estrogen receptor positive breast cancer as well for reducing the risk of invasive breast cancer post surgery. It is also prescribed as a prophylaxis for women with a high risk of breast cancer. It's often prescribed alone or possible as an adjuvant in other treatments. Tamoxifen's mechanism of action works by inhibiting the growth of tumor cells while also promoting apoptosis. It competitively inhibits estrogen/estradiol binding to its receptor which prevents the coactivator from binding to the receptor-tamoxifen complex in the nucleus. This prevents transcription of the estrogen target genes decreasing the production of tumor growth factor alpha and insulin-like growth factor 1 while increasing sex hormone binding globulin. Tamoxifen is also shown to induce apoptosis in estrogen receptor positive cancer cells. The action might be due to the inhibition of protein kinase C (PKC) which inhibits DNA synthesis. Overdose of tamoxifen leads to acute neurotoxicity seen by tremors, hyperreflexia, unsteady gait, and dizziness. Tamoxifen is usually administered in an oral form in a tablet or solution form.
References
Tamoxifen Anti-Cancer Pathway References
Lupien M, Eeckhoute J, Meyer CA, Krum SA, Rhodes DR, Liu XS, Brown M: Coactivator function defines the active estrogen receptor alpha cistrome. Mol Cell Biol. 2009 Jun;29(12):3413-23. doi: 10.1128/MCB.00020-09. Epub 2009 Apr 13.
Pubmed: 19364822
Carascossa S, Dudek P, Cenni B, Briand PA, Picard D: CARM1 mediates the ligand-independent and tamoxifen-resistant activation of the estrogen receptor alpha by cAMP. Genes Dev. 2010 Apr 1;24(7):708-19. doi: 10.1101/gad.568410.
Pubmed: 20360387
Gburcik V, Picard D. The cell-specific activity of the estrogen receptor α may be fine-tuned by phosphorylation-induced structural gymnastics. Nuclear Receptor Signaling 4:1-4, 2006.
Wishart DS, Feunang YD, Guo AC, Lo EJ, Marcu A, Grant JR, Sajed T, Johnson D, Li C, Sayeeda Z, Assempour N, Iynkkaran I, Liu Y, Maciejewski A, Gale N, Wilson A, Chin L, Cummings R, Le D, Pon A, Knox C, Wilson M: DrugBank 5.0: a major update to the DrugBank database for 2018. Nucleic Acids Res. 2018 Jan 4;46(D1):D1074-D1082. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkx1037.
Pubmed: 29126136
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