A new treatment pathway for advanced triple negative breast cancer

A study by scientists at the Yale Cancer Center shows that inhibition of the CECR2 gene prevents the progression or metastasis of triple negative breast cancer. The discovery is an early step in the search for new drugs for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), one of the most difficult subtypes to treat. The discovery was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

"The results of this study are very encouraging as there are few effective treatments for triple negative breast cancer once it has metastasized," said study author Dr. Qin Yan, director of the Center for Epigenetics and Biomarkers at the Department of Pathology at the Yale School of Medicine, co-leader of the Genomics, Genetics and Epigenetics Research Program and Scientific Co-Director of the Yale Cancer Center Breast Cancer Center. "We are constantly looking for new effective therapeutic strategies to help patients with this potentially fatal disease."

In this study, researchers profiled 13 pairs of primary and metastatic breast tumor samples taken from patients with the disease. As a therapeutic target, they identified a gene called CECR2 that increases tumor expression to distant organs. Researchers found that CECR2 allowed breast cancer cells to migrate and invade adjacent tissues and avoid the host's immune system from reacting. In contrast, targeting CECR2 resulted in T-cell activation and prevented tumor spread. Scientists also found that small molecule inhibitors of CECR2 could inhibit the ability of TNBC to spread in cell cultures and animal models, opening up a potential new therapeutic pathway to treat advanced disease. According to the researchers, the findings could translate into an increased response to current immunotherapies, which as monotherapy have had little success in treating breast cancer.

"We will continue our research (...) we hope to develop small molecule CECR2 inhibitors for clinical trials," Yan added.

Source: ScienceDaily