Scientists Find Origins of Aggressive Breast Cancer
2 September 2010 - Scientists have made a major step towards answering one of the fundamental questions in breast cancer research – where the disease originates. This raises hope of new targeted treatments for women with breast cancer in the future.
The team from the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) showed for the first time that the most aggressive and hard-to-treat types of the disease are likely to arise from intermediary, or progenitor, cells. The results run counter to the commonly-held theory that breast cancer originates in stem cells.
Study leader Dr Matt Smalley said the finding was hugely significant in directing future research into combating the disease.
“It means we can now look very closely at where the disease forms and which genes are involved in that process. This knowledge will greatly improve the chance of finding effective new targeted treatments for breast cancer patients in the future,” he said.
The team attempted to replicate inherited forms of human breast cancer in mice by giving them a faulty BRCA gene, which is known to cause the disease. They introduced the defect into the stem cells of one group of mice and into the intermediary cells of a separate group. The cancers which developed from stem cells did not resemble inherited breast cancer.
Strikingly, the cancers that formed from intermediary cells were almost identical to triple negative breast cancer and forms of the disease which run in the family. The authors therefore concluded that these types of breast cancer form in intermediary cells.
Triple negative breast cancer and breast cancer caused by faulty BRCA genes are two of the most aggressive types of the disease. There is currently no targeted treatment for triple negative breast cancer, while a targeted treatment for inherited forms of breast cancer – called PARP inhibitors – is currently showing promise in clinical trials.
