Calcium Homeostasis in the Development of Resistant Breast Tumors

Desirée Martin-García; Teresa Téllez; Maximino Redondo; Marilina García-Aranda

doi:10.3390/cancers15112872

Calcium Homeostasis in the Development of Resistant Breast Tumors

Cancers (Basel). 2023 May 23;15(11):2872. doi: 10.3390/cancers15112872.

Authors

Desirée Martin-García^{1

2}, Teresa Téllez^{1

2

3}, Maximino Redondo^{1

2

3

4}, Marilina García-Aranda^{2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Surgical Specialties, Biochemistry and Immunology Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Málaga, 29010 Málaga, Spain.
² Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga-Plataforma BIONAND (IBIMA-BIONAND), Severo Ochoa, 35, 29590 Málaga, Spain.
³ Red de Investigación en Servicios de Salud en Enfermedades Crónicas (REDISSEC) and Red de Investigación en Cronicidad, Atención Primaria y Promoción de la Salud (RICAPPS), Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga (IBIMA), 29590 Málaga, Spain.
⁴ Research and Innovation Unit, Hospital Costa del Sol, Autovia A-7 km 187, 29602 Marbella, Spain.

Abstract

Cancer is one of the main health problems worldwide. Only in 2020, this disease caused more than 19 million new cases and almost 10 million deaths, with breast cancer being the most diagnosed worldwide. Today, despite recent advances in breast cancer treatment, a significant percentage of patients will either not respond to therapy or will eventually experience lethal progressive disease. Recent studies highlighted the involvement of calcium in the proliferation or evasion of apoptosis in breast carcinoma cells. In this review, we provide an overview of intracellular calcium signaling and breast cancer biology. We also discuss the existing knowledge on how altered calcium homeostasis is implicated in breast cancer development, highlighting the potential utility of Ca²⁺ as a predictive and prognostic biomarker, as well as its potential for the development of new pharmacological treatments to treat the disease.

Keywords: Ca2+ channels; breast cancer; calcium; homeostasis; resistant tumors; targeted therapy.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The researcher Marilina García-Aranda is the benefactor of a postdoctoral contract financed by the European Social Fund—Operational Program of Andalusia 2014–2020 for the “Incorporation of Research Personnel with a PhD degree in the field of Health Sciences and Technologies in R&D and Innovation Centers of the Public Health System of Andalusia” (RH-0055-2020). This work was partially supported by grants from the University of Malaga—Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades—Junta de Andalucia (UMA20-FEDERJA-161) and from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI18/01181, PI21/00252) and were cofunded by the European Regional Development fund. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.