Bone drug that may stop the spread of breast cancer
THE lives of thousands of women could be saved after British scientists discovered a way to stop breast cancer spreading into the bones.
Experts hope the finding will slash deaths linked to the disease, which affects more than 50,000 people in the UK each year.
Researchers at Sheffield University say they have found a group of drugs that stops cancerous cells getting into a patient’s bones.
The drugs, bisphosphonates, are already used to treat for osteoporo-sis and appear effective in around 30 per cent of cases. Secondary tumours in the bones are the cause of some 85 per cent of the 12,000 breast cancer deaths in the UK every year.
The discovery, published last night
‘Important progress’
in the journal Nature, requires fur-ther trials to test how effective the drugs are on a large number of patients. But if these are successful, the fact the drugs are already licensed for human use should mean they can be made available more quickly.
The researchers believe the drugs can effectively isolate breast cancer in the patients most at risk – those with the ER-negative form – stop-ping it from spreading.
Primary tumours in the breast are relatively easy to deal with because they can be removed with surgery or targeted with chemotherapy or radi-otherapy. But when the cancer spreads, it becomes untreatable.
Research co- l eader Dr Alison Gartland, a bone specialist at the University of Sheffield, said last night: ‘ER-negative patients are the ones with the poorest prognosis – the ones who really need identifying and treating. This is important progress in the fight against breast cancer, increasing the chances of survival for thousands of patients.’
Her team discovered that ER-nega-tive breast tumours release an enzyme, LysYl Oxidase (LOX), which attacks the bones. Bisphosphonates stop LOX interacting with bone cells. A blood test could identify the pres-ence of LOX soon as a patient is diagnosed with breast cancer.
Samia al Qadhi, chief executive of Breast Cancer Care, said: ‘These find-ings indicate an exciting step towards a better understanding of how some breast cancers spread to the bones. This could help lay the basis for new and improved therapies.’
Katherine Woods, of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, said: ‘‘The reality of living with secondary breast cancer in the bone is a stark one, which leaves many women with bone pain and fractures that need extensive surgery just when they need to be making the most of the time they have left with friends and family.’