Tamoxifen-induced rapid death of MCF-7 breast cancer cells is mediated via extracellularly signal-regulated kinase signaling and can be abrogated by estrogen.

Tamoxifen (Tam) is widely used in chemotherapy of breast cancer. It inhibits proliferation and induces apoptosis of breast cancer cells by estrogen receptor (ER)-dependent modulation of gene expression. In addition, recent reports have shown that Tam also has nongenomic effects. We previously reported induction of a rapid mitochondrial death program in breast cancer cells at pharmacological concentrations of Tam. Here we studied the upstream signaling events leading to mitochondrial disruption by Tam. We observed that 5 mum Tam rapidly induced sustained activation of ERK1/2 in ER-positive breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and T47D) and that PD98059 (inhibitor of ERK activation) was able to protect MCF-7 cells against Tam-induced death. These data suggest that activation of ERK has a primary role in the acute death response of the cells. In addition, inhibition of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) opposed both Tam-induced ERK1/2 phosphorylation and cell death, which suggests that EGFR-associated mechanisms are involved in Tam-induced death. ERK1/2 phosphorylation was associated with a prolonged nuclear localization of ERK1/2 as determined by fluorescence microscopy with ERK2-green fluorescent protein construct. 17beta-Estradiol was shown to exert a different kind of temporal pattern of ERK nuclear localization in comparison with Tam. Moreover, 17beta-estradiol was found to oppose the rapid effects of Tam in MCF-7 and T47D cells but not in MDA-MB-231 cells, which implies a role for estrogen receptors in the protective effect of estrogen. The pure antiestrogen ICI182780 could not, however, prevent Tam-induced ERK1/2 phosphorylation, suggesting that the Tam-induced rapid cell death is primarily ER-independent or mediated by ICI182780 insensitive nongenomic mechanisms.