Research

Breast cancer strikes one out of eight women in Switzerland. A woman's risk to get breast cancer is linked to her reproductive history. While early pregnancies have a protective effect, cancer risk increases with the number of menstrual cycles a woman experiences prior to her first pregnancy. Although it is well established that the female sex hormones estrogen, progesterone and prolactin control breast development and have an important role in breast carcinogenesis, the mechanisms by which they exert their effects are poorly understood. Our goal is to understand how hormones interact with developmental signaling pathways in the breast to control growth and differentiation.

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