New drug created to fight deadliest breast cancer
SCIENTISTS have developed a drug to fight the most aggressive form of breast cancer.
“Triple negative” cases are fastgrowing cancers that account for one in six cases and kill a quarter of sufferers within five years.
The drug will attack cells resistant to hormone therapy by migrating them to other organs through connective tissues and blood vessels, making them easier to treat.
The breakthrough, reported in the journal Nature Medicine, could revolutionise care for thousands of women.
Urgent
Professor Kristian Pietras, a researcher at Lund University in Sweden, said: “We have developed a new treatment strategy for aggressive and difficult-to-treat breast cancers that restores sensitivity to hormone therapy.
“These findings have major implications in the development of more effective treatments for patients with aggressive breast cancer.”
Tumours arise in two types of glandular tissue in the breast – the outer “basal” cells and inner “luminal” cells. The latter are much less dangerous than the former.
The scientists wrote: “Basal-like tumours have the highest recurrence rate, the shortest time to recurrence and the worst overall survival rate owing to a paucity of therapeutic targets.
“Thus, new treatment approaches for patients with basal-like breast cancer are urgently required.”
Prof Pietras, who has worked with researchers in Germany and Australia, identified how high levels of a growth factor in basal cells, named PDGF-CC, allows aggressive cancers to spread more easily.
After comparing more than 1,450 specimens of tumours, the inter-national team developed a drug that can block PDGF-CC.
This changed the cells from basal breast cancers into hormonesensitive luminal breast cancers – which are much more treatable.
More than 55,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year in the UK. The disease claims almost 11,500 lives every year in the UK.