Health

New weapon emerges in battle against deadly form of breast cancer



New hope of a treatment for one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer emerged today.

US scientists announced that laboratory tests using a naturally occurring protein could help women with triple negative breast cancer.

This aggressive form of the disease accounts for 15 per cent of breast cancers and has a higher mortality rate, with 77 per cent of patients alive five years after diagnosis, compared with 93 per cent for other breast cancers.

The research, led by Princeton University and reported in the journal Cancer Cell, found that the protein Tinagl1 restricted tumour growth in mice.

It targets a mutant gene that tells cancer cells to multiply, and then interferes with a protein that fuels cancer cell growth and survival.

Lead researcher Professor Yibin Kang said: “People have tried to block the spread of this form of cancer but attempts so far have failed because if you try one approach, the cancer cells compensate by finding a way to escape.

“With this new approach, the treatment blocks both pathways at the same time. It is like having one stone that kills two birds.”

Last month a team at King’s College London found that targeted antibody therapies, which prime the immune system to attack tumours, could prove effective in treating triple negative breast cancer.

The disease does not respond to hormone treatments, such as tamoxifen, or drugs that block the cancer-driving protein Her2, such as Herceptin, leaving women to rely on surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

About 7,500 women a year in the UK are diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer.



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