Scientists find a way to make deadly tumours vulnerable to chemotherapy
- Triple negative cancer cells account for around 1 in 6 breast tumours
- They have high levels of PIM-1 which makes them immune to treatment
- But a new inhibitor makes them vulnerable to chemotherapy and kills them
- Scientists hope the drug to be used in breast cancer trials within two years
Stephen Matthews For Mailonline
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Women suffering from one of the deadliest forms of breast cancer could soon have access to breakthrough treatment, scientists claim.
A new drug – which makes tumours vulnerable to chemotherapy – provides hope for patients with a ‘triple negative’ breast tumour.
The aggressive form of cancer accounts for one in six cases of breast tumours and kill a quarter of sufferers in just five years.
The PIM-1 inhibitor, which is already used in trials to battle leukaemia, kills off cancerous cells.
A new drug – which makes tumours vulnerable to chemotherapy – provides hope for patients with a ‘triple negative’ breast tumour, researchers claim
Found in leukaemia patients, the molecule helps tumours survive by telling them to ignore death signals from toxic chemotherapy drugs.
But by blocking the molecule through medication it would make the cancerous cells vulnerable to treatment, experts say.
Lead researcher Professor Andrew Tutt, from King’s College London, said: ‘Many triple negative breast cancers are very resistant to chemotherapy and are “driven” by genes that are very difficult to target with drugs.
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‘We have shown that PIM-1, a molecule for which drugs are already in trials in other diseases, is so important for what makes a triple-negative breast cancer cell malignant that they become addicted to it.
‘PIM-1 also rescues them from the cliff-edge of death caused by chemotherapy by controlling these “driver” and “death protection” genes – genes that are themselves difficult to drug.
‘It is early days but as PIM1-inhibitor drugs have already been discovered they may give us a new way to hit these cancer genes.
The PIM-1 inhibitor, which is used in trials to battle leukaemia, kills off cancerous cells (stock)
‘The hope would be that these drugs could strip triple-negative breast cancers of their defences so that they can be pushed over the cliff by other breast cancer treatments.’
Scientists hope their findings will allow the drug to be used in breast cancer trials within two years.
Researchers from King’s College London and The Institute of Cancer Research compared 319 triple negative cancer samples with more than 2,000 ordinary tumours in mice.
WHAT IS A TRIPLE NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER TUMOUR?
Triple negative breast cancer is a type of breast cancer that does not have receptors for the hormones oestrogen and progesterone or the protein HER2.
It is more common in women under 40 and black women. Some women with triple negative breast cancer have a faulty BRCA1 gene.
Treatment usually combines surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Some doctors recommend the removal of part of the breast (a lumpectomy) or the entire breast (a mastectomy).
Radiotherapy and chemotherapy may be given to reduce the risk of cancer coming back.
Chemotherapy is given after surgery, or before surgery to shrink a cancer.
If it’s caught early, it can often be treated successfully. But in general, survival rates tend to be lower than other forms of breast cancer.
Source: Macmillan Cancer Support
They discovered much higher levels of PIM-1 activity in the triple negative tumours.
But when they gave the animal a drug to half the effects, it managed to stop the tumour growth straight away.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, Chief Executive at Breast Cancer Now, said: ‘This is a hugely exciting advance for an important group of patients in desperate need of more treatment options.
‘Triple negative breast cancer is often aggressive and more common in younger women, and chemotherapy drugs remain the only option for these women.
‘While these work very well for some, if patients’ cancers become resistant there are few other options.
‘A new targeted treatment for triple negative patients would be a major breakthrough.
‘Drugs that inhibit the action of crucial molecule PIM1 are in clinical trials for leukaemia already, and look like they could be well-tolerated, and this gives us real hope of a new option in the future.
‘Fundamentally, this finding demonstrates the importance of continued innovation and collaboration in trying to answer the biggest questions remaining in breast cancer.’
The study was published in Nature Medicine.
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