MADRID 11 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) remains the most aggressive and deadly type of breast cancer, but new findings from cancer researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the system of Mass General Brigham health care, are pointing the way toward therapeutic strategies that could be tested in clinical trials in the future.
Using patient-derived samples in preclinical work, the researchers found that combining two therapeutic agents could boost TNBC cells to a more treatable state. The findings are published in ‘Nature’.
“When combined, these therapeutic agents can hijack the signals that occur naturally in the body to eliminate breast cells after breastfeeding cessation, thereby killing these aggressive cancer cells,” said lead author Dr. Karen Cichowski. from the Division of Genetics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). “Our results provide compelling support for the development of clinical trials to test whether the combination of these agents could benefit patients with triple-negative breast cancer.”
Specifically, the researchers discovered that by combining two types of agents, known as EZH2 and AKT inhibitors, they could induce TNBC cells to differentiate. Once the cells differentiate, these agents kill the tumor cells by triggering a process similar to involution, which typically occurs when breast tissue returns to a non-lactating state after the mother stops producing breast milk.
The researchers also used machine learning to predict patient responses, another step that could help pave the way for clinical trials in patients. In future studies, researchers are interested in exploring whether similar drug combinations may be effective in other tumor types.
