Enzyme found to be key role in Breast Cancer

Led by scientists from the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, the team has discovered that an enzyme called APOBEC3B (A3B) plays a key role in enabling the most common form of breast cancer to grow.
The research, funded by Cancer Research UK and Breast Cancer Now, is published today in Cell Reports.
Although it will be some years before a treatment based on the new findings could be ready, it could provide an alternative therapy for patients who have developed resistance to existing breast cancer drugs.Lead author Professor Simak Ali, from Imperial’s Department of Surgery and Cancer said: “Current treatments for ER+ breast cancer, which affects over 70 percent of patients, are very effective. But a considerable proportion of patients will develop resistance and each time that happens, their remission period is shorter. A treatment based on A3B would provide another route for patients resistant to either ER or aromatase inhibitors.”