UK discovery of Breast Cancer spread ‘trigger’

New therapies to stop the progression of breast cancer could emerge from a fresh study into the disease, researchers believe. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh said they have discovered a “trigger” that allows breast cancer cells to spread to the lungs. They found that blocking those signals in mice with breast cancer greatly reduces the number of secondary tumors found in the lungs.
The researchers hope their findings may one day translate into new treatments to stop the progression of breast cancer in the human body. The majority of deaths from breast cancer are caused by the tumor spreading to other parts of the body, with the lungs often among the first organs affected.
Researchers at the university’s MRC centre for reproductive health investigated the role that immune cells called macrophages play in helping cells spread from the original tumor. Their previous research has shown that breast cancer cells need the support of macrophages to invade the lungs and set up secondary tumors.The team’s latest research found that macrophages require signalling molecules called chemokines to communicate with breast cancer cells. But when scientists blocked these signals in mice, they found the number of secondary tumors in the lungs was reduced by up to two-thirds.
In addition, blocking the signals helped stop the cancer cells getting into the lungs from the blood stream, and hindered those that did get into the lungs from establishing themselves and forming new tumors. Human cells appear to use the same chemokine signals to communicate with each other, prompting researchers to hope that their findings may translate into new treatments to stop breast cancer spreading to other parts of the body.The results suggest that targeting a signalling molecule called CCR1 may result in fewer unwanted side-effects for patients while stopping the spread of breast cancer cells, experts said.