In a new study from the journal Nature Medicine, researchers claim an unlikely drug may block breast cancer in a formula already available in the market to originally treat osteoporosis.
Unlikely Drug May Block Breast Cancer In The Form Of A Formula For Osteoporosis
According to the National Cancer Institute, around 12% of women in the United States develop breast cancer in their lifetime.
About 65% may also develop breast cancer by the age of 70 for women found with a breast cancer gene mutation called BRCA1.
However, a drug already available in the market originally formulated to treat osteoporosis may be the answer to treating breast cancer.
This, after scientists from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia claims that a drug formula called denosumab would stop breast cancer cells in its tracks.
Jane Visvader, a co-author of the study, says that their findings indicate proof that denosumab was able to stop certain mutated breast tissue cells from progressing to cancerous tumours.
Gene mutation may help stop breast cancer tumour growth
“If this is an effective prevention strategy, then our hope is that it will be possible to prevent or delay breast cancer in women with a BRCA1 mutation and possibly other women at high genetic risk,” says Visvader, adding that, “it would be great if this strategy could ‘buy time’ for women considering having mastectomies.”
Their findings were based on analysis of 33 breast tissue samples with no BCRA1 mutations and another 24 mutated samples.
The researchers saw that a molecule called RANK was common among a certain subset of cells with the BCRA1 tissues. These are the same ones likely to develop into tumours.
New promise for breast cancer treatments
“We have now been able to pinpoint the precise culprit cells and were very excited to see that they express the RANK protein,” says Geoff Lindeman a co-author of the research and a clinician-scientist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.
“Over the last few years, it has become increasingly clear from the work of several groups that RANK ligand, which switches on RANK, is an important regulator of cell growth in the breast,” says Lindeman.
In their experiment, researchers injected tissue samples with denosumab as an inhibitor as it is known as a treatment for bone loss in cancer patients as it targets RANK ligand. The test was successful in preventing tumour development in mice and tissue samples.
The scientists claim that further studies are still underway to determine the long term effects of this approach. Although this unlikely drug may block breast cancer, it will just be a matter of time before the results would determine if this would become an option for breast cancer patients.
Image Credit: Unlikely drug may block breast cancer in high-risk women – CNN
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