Role of Hepatocyte Growth Factor in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women globally and remains a principle cause of morbidity and mortality in women. Despite the availability of numerous advanced medical approaches for treatment of breast cancer, breast cancer still remains a serious health issue and a major cause of morbidity and mortality in women worldwide. Thus, at present there is great need to develop novel therapeutic agents that target molecules involved in the growth, survival and progression of malignant breast cancer cells with high specificity. The advantage of such targeted therapies will include enhanced efficacy and a reduction in adverse side effects. A promising intracellular target is hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). HGF and its receptor c-MET has been demonstrated to be higher in patients with breast cancer. Here, in this study we have shown that HGF promotes proliferation and migration of breast cancer cells.