Recent Candidate Molecular Markers: Vitamin D Signaling and Apoptosis Specific Regulator of p53 (ASPP) in Breast Cancer

Regardless of advances in treatment modalities with the invention of newer therapies, breast cancer remains amajor health problem with respect to its diagnosis, treatment and management. This female malignancy with itstremendous heterogeneous nature is linked to high incidence and mortality rates, especially in developing regionof the world. It is the malignancy composed of distinct biological subtypes with diverse clinical, pathological,molecular and genetic features as well as different therapeutic responsiveness and outcomes. This inconsistencycan be partially overcome by finding novel molecular markers with biological significance. In recent years, newertechnologies help us to indentify distinct biomarkers and increase our understanding of the molecular basis ofbreast cancer. However, certain issues need to be resolved that limit the application of gene expression profilingto current clinical practice. Despite the complex nature of gene expression patterns of cDNAs in microarrays,there are some innovative regulatory molecules and functional pathways that allow us to predict breast cancerbehavior in the clinic and provide new targets for breast cancer treatment. This review describes the landscapeof different molecular markers with particular spotlight on vitamin D signaling pathway and apoptotic specificprotein of p53 (ASPP) family members in breast cancer.