Contribution of the unfolded protein response to breast and prostate tissue homeostasis and its significance to cancer endocrine response.

Resistant Breast and Prostate cancer remain a major clinical problem and new therapeutic approaches and better predictors of therapeutic response are clearly needed. Due to the involvement of the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) in cell proliferation and apoptosis evasion, an increasing number of publications support the hypothesis that impairments in this network trigger and/or exacerbate cancer. Moreover, UPR activation could contribute to the development of drug-resistance phenotypes in both breast and prostate cancers. Therefore, targeting this pathway has recently emerged as a promising strategy in anti-cancer therapy. This review addresses the contribution of UPR to breast and prostate tissues homeostasis and its significance to cancer endocrine response with focus on the current progress on UPR research related to cancer biology, detection, prognosis and treatment are also discussed.