ISLAMABAD February 13 (TNS) : Triple-negative breast cancer has poor survival rates. However, the results of a new study — in which researchers discovered a stem cell pathway that may promote the disease — may lead to new treatments.
Scientists have identified a protein that could be behind triple-negative breast cancer’s poor survival rates. Over recent months, Medical News Today have covered many studies related to breast cancer and how it can be treated. One such study, for example, found that a single injection of a small amount of two agents could successfully eliminate cancer in mice.
Another study suggested that starving cancer cells of vitamin B-2 could prevent their spread. Now, scientists at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute in Ohio claim that they have identified a new stem cell pathway that promotes highly aggressive triple-negative breast cancer.
In the study — which is published in the journal Nature Communications — the researchers outline a survival pathway that had not yet been described in previous breast cancer studies, and which may provide a potential new target for future therapies.
Experts now know that hormone therapy prevents breast cancer cells from binding to hormones that promote their growth, such as estrogen and progesterone. However, the main problem when it comes to treating triple-negative breast cancer cells is that they do not have receptors that allow them to bind to estrogen and progesterone.
Researchers find a way to starve breast cancer cells of vital energy needed to spread. Because typical breast cancer therapies use these receptors to target cancer cells, the absence of these receptors help triple-negative breast cancer cells to evade treatment. As a result, triple-negative breast cancer is associated with low survival rates.
