Irish research fuels hopes in treatment of breast cancer
■ New strategy could improve survival rates
IRISH scientists have made a breakthrough that could have a significant impact on how one of the most aggressive and difficult forms of breast cancer is treated.
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for around 15pc of all breast cancers diagnosed. Unlike other forms of the disease, there are no targeted therapies available for it.
Around 3,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in Ireland every year.
TNBC is treated with chemotherapy, and although initially successful, a large percentage of TNBC patients relapse within one to three years of treatment and have a poor long-term prognosis, according to researchers.
A research team, led by Professor Afshin Samali at NUI Galway, has made a significant breakthrough in relation to the disease, which could improve the response to chemotherapy and reduce the relapse rate.
Their findings, which are a first in world research, were published yesterday in the internationally renowned ‘Nature Communications’ journal.
Until now, the exact mechanism of tumour relapse post-chemotherapy has been unknown, but researchers have found one way it can happen.
They discovered that a stress response sensor called IRE1 can be turned on in cancer cells, leading to cancer cell survival and relapse. They found that targeting this sensor with a new drug may improve the response to chemotherapy and reduce relapse rates for TNBC.
Prof Samali, the director of the Apoptosis Research Centre, said: “This study is the result of extensive laboratory experiments, analysis of breast cancer patient samples, testing pre-clinical models of triple negative breast cancer and collaboration with our international and industry partners.
“The new era of precision oncology aims to tailor treatments to individual cancer patients and here at NUI Galway, we are excited to identify a new therapeutic strategy for TNBC patients who are most in need of better treatment options.”
In addition to laboratory-based experiments, an analysis of 595 patient tumours, which revealed that TNBC tumours displayed the highest IRE1 activity compared with other subtypes, suggesting that IRE1 may be of particular importance to this type of cancer.
Dr Susan Logue (right), first author of the study at NUI Galway, said: “This work has uncovered a previously unknown role for IRE1 and suggests that it may represent a good therapeutic target for the treatment of triple negative breast cancer.”
The landmark study was funded by Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Cancer Society and Horizon 2020, with funding from Breast Cancer Now.
Further clinical trials will
now be carried out.
TNBC is more often diagnosed in younger women. Patients with this type of breast cancer cannot receive ‘targeted therapies’ such as hormone therapy, for example Tamoxifen or Herceptin. Instead, the only
effective treatment for these patients is chemotherapy, making this type of cancer one of the most difficult to treat.
Although many of these patients do respond well to chemotherapy, resistance of the tumour to this treatment
is a common problem. Dr Robert O’Connor, head of research in the Irish Cancer Society, said: “We await with interest human clinical trials which may arise from this work and which would give
insight as to whether this is of benefit to women. The research shows yet again that Ireland has many talented cancer researchers that are collaborating internationally to make significant advances in our knowledge of various forms of cancer.”