ArticleBreast cancer research : BCR2017
Relationship between crown-like structures and sex-steroid hormones in breast adipose tissue and serum among postmenopausal breast cancer patients.
Article in Breast cancer research : BCR, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 76 citations in OpenAlex.
- Signals from the Adipose Microenvironment and the Obesity-Cancer Link-A Systematic Review.Cancer prevention research (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2017Pooled it
- Association of Body Fat and Risk of Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women With Normal Body Mass Index: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial and Observational Study.JAMA oncology · 2019Trial
- Nomogram for reducing unnecessary biopsies of breast lesions based on MRI and clinical features: a multi-center retrospective cohort study.Cancer imaging : the official publication of the International Cancer Imaging Society · 2025Article
- Is Adipose Tissue Inflammation the Culprit of Obesity-Associated Comorbidities?Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025Review
- Neighborhood Environment, DNA Methylation, and Presence of Crown-Like Structures of the Breast.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Chronic Psychological Stress Activates TRP/TAM/CXCL1 Signaling to Promote Breast Cancer Adipocyte Lipolysis via KEAP1 mResearch (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Article
- Article
- Interaction between body mass index and family history of cancer on the risk of female breast cancer.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Reprogramming of Lipid Metabolism Mediates Crosstalk, Remodeling, and Intervention of Microenvironment Components in Breast Cancer.International journal of biological sciences · 2024Review
- Obesity, dysbiosis and inflammation: interactions that modulate the efficacy of immunotherapy.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Review
- The Role of the Tumor Microenvironment in Triple-Positive Breast Cancer Progression and Therapeutic Resistance.Cancers · 2023Review
- The Molecular and Genetic Interactions between Obesity and Breast Cancer Risk.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023Review
- Review
- Changes in the mammary gland during aging and its links with breast diseases.Acta biochimica et biophysica Sinica · 2023Review
- Review
- Benign Breast Disease, NSAIDs, and Postmenopausal Breast Cancer Risk in the CPS-II Cohort.Cancer prevention research (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2023Article
- SARS-CoV-2 infection induces persistent adipose tissue damage in aged golden Syrian hamsters.Cell death & disease · 2023Article
- Association between dietary inflammatory index and body fat percentage among newly diagnosed breast cancer patients.Annals of medicine · 2023Article
- The obesity-breast cancer link: a multidisciplinary perspective.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2022Review
- The Landscape of Immune Microenvironments in Racially Diverse Breast Cancer Patients.Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention : a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
20 authors at 9 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPostmenopausal obesity is associated with increased circulating levels of androgens and estrogens and elevated breast cancer risk. Crown-like structures (CLS; microscopic foci of dying adipocytes surrounded by macrophages) are proposed to represent sites of increased aromatization of androgens to estrogens. Accordingly, we examined relationships between CLS and sex-steroid hormones in breast adipose tissue and serum from postmenopausal breast cancer patients.
methodsFormalin-fixed paraffin embedded benign breast tissues collected for research from postmenopausal women (n = 83) diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in the Polish Breast Cancer Study (PBCS) were evaluated. Tissues were immunohistochemically stained for CD68 to determine the presence of CLS per unit area of adipose tissue. Relationships were assessed between CD68 density and CLS and previously reported sex-steroid hormones quantified using radioimmunoassays in serum taken at the time of diagnosis and in fresh frozen adipose tissue taken at the time of surgery. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the relationships between hormones (in tertiles) and CLS.
resultsCLS were observed in 36% of benign breast tissues, with a higher frequency among obese versus lean women (54% versus 17%, p = 0.03). Detection of CLS was not related to individual hormone levels or breast tumor pathology characteristics. However, detection of CLS was associated with hormone ratios. Compared with women in the highest tertile of estrone:androstenedione ratio in fat, those in the lowest tertile were less likely to have CLS (OR 0.12, 95% CI 0.03-0.59). A similar pattern was observed with estradiol:testosterone ratio in serum and CLS (lowest versus highest tertile, OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.04-0.72).
conclusionsCLS were more frequently identified in the breast fat of obese women and were associated with increased ratios of select estrogens:androgens in the blood and tissues, but not with individual hormones. Additional studies on CLS, tissue and blood hormone levels, and breast cancer risk are needed to understand and confirm these findings.
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