Publications by Valentina Scabia

Mimicking women’s endocrine milieu in mice for women’s health-related studies

Cathrin Brisken, Laura Battista, Céline Berthe Constantin, Valentina Scabia, Csaba Ferenc László

To improve preclinical studies and their translation, patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) are increasingly used. They have human-specific tumor characteristics and reflect intra and inter-tumor heterogeneity. However, the endocrine milieu differs between hum ...

Springer Science and Business Media LLC2025

Estrogen receptor positive breast cancers have patient specific hormone sensitivities and rely on progesterone receptor

Cathrin Brisken, Giovanna Ambrosini, Ayyakkannu Ayyanan, Laura Battista, Valentina Scabia, Csaba Ferenc László, Fabio De Martino, Andrea Agnoletto

Estrogen and progesterone receptor (ER, PR) signaling control breast development and impinge on breast carcinogenesis. ER is an established driver of ER + disease but the role of the PR, itself an ER target gene, is debated. We assess the issue in clinical ...

Nature Portfolio2022

Intraductal xenografts show lobular carcinoma cells rely on their own extracellular matrix and LOXL1

Philipp Bucher, Cathrin Brisken, Giovanna Ambrosini, Ayyakkannu Ayyanan, Laura Battista, Georgios Sflomos, Valentina Scabia, Maryse Fiche, Patrik Aouad, Fabio De Martino

Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) is the most frequent special histological subtype of breast cancer, typically characterized by loss of E‐cadherin. It has clinical features distinct from other estrogen receptor‐positive (ER+) breast cancers but the molecul ...

2021

Contraceptive progestins with androgenic properties stimulate breast epithelial cell proliferation

Philipp Bucher, Cathrin Brisken, Giovanna Ambrosini, Laura Battista, Céline Berthe Constantin, Valentina Scabia, Marie Shamseddin, Csaba Ferenc László, Fabio De Martino

Hormonal contraception exposes women to synthetic progesterone receptor (PR) agonists, progestins, and transiently increases breast cancer risk. How progesterone and progestins affect the breast epithelium is poorly understood because we lack adequate mode ...

2021

IL6/STAT3 Signaling Hijacks Estrogen Receptor α Enhancers to Drive Breast Cancer Metastasis

Cathrin Brisken, Sanjeev Kumar, Valentina Scabia

2020

90 YEARS OF PROGESTERONE Progesterone receptor signaling in the normal breast and its implications for cancer

Cathrin Brisken, Valentina Scabia

Progesterone is considered as the pregnancy hormone and acts on many different target tissues. Progesterone receptor (PR) signaling is important for normal development and the physiologic function of the breast and impinges on breast carcinogenesis. Both s ...

BIOSCIENTIFICA LTD2020

miR363-3p mediates maintenance of breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) and predicts resistance to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and disease recurrence

Nicolas Mermod, Jean-Yves Meuwly, Cathrin Brisken, Valentina Scabia, Valérian Charles Robert Dormoy, Maryse Fiche, Ioannis Xenarios

AMER ASSOC CANCER RESEARCH2020

Hormone receptor signaling in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer

Valentina Scabia

Estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) signaling tightly interact in controlling postnatal breast development and impinge on breast carcinogenesis. PR is a direct transcriptional target of ER signaling and ER and PR bind closely to DNA and i ...

EPFL2019

C/EBP alpha mediates the growth inhibitory effect of progestins on breast cancer cells

Cathrin Brisken, Valentina Scabia

Steroid hormones are key gene regulators in breast cancer cells. While estrogens stimulate cell proliferation, progestins activate a single cell cycle followed by proliferation arrest. Here, we use biochemical and genome-wide approaches to show that proges ...

WILEY2019

Intraductal patient-derived xenografts of estrogen receptor α-positive breast cancer recapitulate the histopathological spectrum and metastatic potential of human lesions

Cathrin Brisken, Ayyakkannu Ayyanan, Laura Battista, Georgios Sflomos, Valentina Scabia, Valérian Charles Robert Dormoy, Maryse Fiche, Patrik Aouad

Estrogen receptor α-positive (ER-positive) or 'luminal' breast cancers were notoriously difficult to establish as patient-derived xenografts (PDXs). We and others recently demonstrated that the microenvironment is critical for ER-positive tumor cells; when ...

2018

Oestrogen receptor alpha AF-1 and AF-2 domains have cell population-specific functions in the mammary epithelium

Cathrin Brisken, Ayyakkannu Ayyanan, Georgios Sflomos, Valentina Scabia, Dalya Ataca, Stéphanie Cagnet, Patrik Aouad

Oestrogen receptor alpha (ER alpha) is a transcription factor with ligand-independent and ligand-dependent activation functions (AF)-1 and -2. Oestrogens control postnatal mammary gland development acting on a subset of mammary epithelial cells (MECs), ter ...

Nature Publishing Group2018

Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models in basic and translational breast cancer research

Cathrin Brisken, Georgios Sflomos, Valentina Scabia

Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models of a growing spectrum of cancers are rapidly supplanting long-established traditional cell lines as preferred models for conducting basic and translational preclinical research. In breast cancer, to complement the now ...

Springer Verlag2016

A Preclinical Model for ERα-Positive Breast Cancer Points to the Epithelial Microenvironment as Determinant of Luminal Phenotype and Hormone Response

Cathrin Brisken, Ayyakkannu Ayyanan, Laura Battista, Rachel Marcone, Georgios Sflomos, Valentina Scabia, Valérian Charles Robert Dormoy, Maryse Fiche

Seventy-five percent of breast cancers are estrogen receptor α positive (ER(+)). Research on these tumors is hampered by lack of adequate in vivo models; cell line xenografts require non-physiological hormone supplements, and patient-derived xenografts (PD ...

Elsevier2016