Scientists may have found a way of treating one of the deadliest forms of breast cancer, it was announced last night.
The problem affects about one in ten women with breast cancer and makes them among those least likely to survive the disease.
They have low levels of a protein called claudin and now researchers at the Cambridge Research Institute of Cancer Research UK have shown how this makes it vulnerable to another protein – called TGF-beta or Transforming Growth Factor Beta.
Treatments are already being developed to inhibit TGF-beta, suggesting they might help treat this kind of cancer, the researchers say.
Their findings were reported in the journal Nature Communications.
They say that TGF-beta boosts cancer stem cells in the low-claudin breast cancer by activating a specific network of genes.
Researcher Professor Carlos Caldas, said: "Crucially this study highlights the role of TGF-beta in one particular subtype that accounts for up to ten per cent of all breast cancers.
"A number of promising treatments are already in early phase trials to target TGF-beta, meaning there is genuine hope of improved treatment options for this group of women in the near future. The next step will be to design the appropriate clinical trials."
Dr Julie Sharp, of Cancer Research UK, said that in other circumstances TGF-beta could help prevent cancer.
TGF-beta induces the formation of tumour-initiating cells in caludinlow breast cancer. Bruna A. et al. Nature Communications September 11 2012; DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2039
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