Reuben Harris on How Tamoxifen Resistance May be Driven by APOBEC3B

Reuben S. Harris, PhD, investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, professor, Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Biophysics at the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences, explains the role APOBEC3B may play in tamoxifen resistance in ER-positive breast cancer.

APOBEC3B, an anti-viral enzyme, was investigated in a retrospective study using a large cohort that was available for analysis from a Dutch study. Harris and his team looked at the primary tumor specimens, determined how high or low the APOBEC3B was expressed, and then stratified this data for recurrent disease outcome overtime.

They found that patients with high levels of APOBEC3B had much worse outcomes compared to those with low levels. Within 1 year, most of those with high levels of APOBEC3B experienced disease recurrence and tamoxifen resistance. Disease progression and resistance to tamoxifen was significantly less common in those with low levels of APOBEC3B, says Harris.

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