Breast cancer treatment new research
A new study from the University of South Australia has shed vital information about the mechanism of progression of breast cancers from benign to aggressive form.
The study, led by Senior Research Fellow Doctor Marina Kochetkova and Adelaide University’s Deputy Head for Molecular and Biomedical Science Professor Shaun McColl, found a direct link between aggressive breast cancer cells and therefore the dual CXCR4-CCR7 chemokine receptors (proteins).
There is new hope for women with #breastcancer as @UniversitySA@CCB_Research and SA Pathology discovers early warning signs on #cancer cells which could help identify aggressive tumors.
The study, funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, shows a connection between the number of these receptors and the severity of cancer, marking the first time in history this protein interaction has been observed in both animal and human cells.
universally, breast cancer is the most common cancer in ladies, yet despite decades of medical study, a cure remains out of reach.
One of the study’s experimenters, Valentina Poltavets, says blocking the interaction between CXCR4-CCR7 proteins could deliver novel treatments for invasive breast cancer.
“ universally, breast cancer affects more than 2.3 million women each year, with aggressive breast cancer accounting for more than forty percent of all cancer-related deaths in women,” Poltavets says.
“ There is no current cure for metastatic tumors, which is why new therapies which will target the spread of carcinoma to different organs within the body are so urgently needed.”
“ On their own, CXCR4 and CCR7 proteins are found in multiple cell types including breast cancer cells. But we saw that in more invasive and metastatic breast cancer cells, they are bound to each other to deliver specific signals that make these cells grow and move rapidly”.
Poltavets, who completed her Ph.D. on the expansion and spread of breast cancers, says that despite growing research resulting in improved carcinoma survival rates, further work is required to understand hard-to-treat breast cancers.
“ There is no doubt that research is advancing our knowledge in breast cancer,” she said. “ Step by step, we were deliberate to seek out a cure for this devastating illness.”
As part of the study, the study team from the University of South Australia also created a system that forced the CXCR4 and CCR7 proteins to interact on the cell surfaces of non-invasive carcinoma cells, showing how they are going to make the cancer cells more aggressive and invasive.
During the last two years of the epidemic, ninety percent of breast screens in Australia have been canceled or delayed, risking the lives of thousands of women.