Drug that prevents breast cancer spreading to bones

A NEW drug to stop breast cancer spreading to the bones has been developed by U.S. scientists at the University of Utah.

The cancer can cause bones to become brittle and break, in a similar way to osteoporosis, causing pain and fractures.

The new drug works by blocking a protein called Ron. In studies on mice, researchers have found that removing the gene which produces this protein protected the bones from being damaged by cancer.

They’ve devised a drug — a Ron inhibitor — to block production of the protein, and are running trials on a number of patients.