New insights on control of pituitary hormone outside of brain has implications for breast cancer

The hormone prolactin is produced by the pituitary gland in the brain and then travels via the bloodstream to cells throughout the body, where it exerts multiple reproductive and metabolic effects, most notably on the breast where it is the master regulator of lactation. Prolactin has long been thought to play a role in human breast cancer, however this has typically been assumed to be due to circulating prolactin produced by the pituitary. Since the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway is commonly activated in human cancers, this new finding suggests the important possibility that prolactin produced by the breast itself may play a role in breast cancer. Read more here.

Study mentioned: Chien-Chung Chen, et al. Autocrine prolactin induced by the Pten–Akt pathway is required for lactation initiation and provides a direct link between the Akt and Stat5 pathways. Genes Dev. 2012; 26:2154-2168.