Aggressive breast cancer has a new weakness
Researchers at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center have identified a potential method to overcome treatment resistance in triple-negative breast cancer. By using an experimental drug to block the LOX protein and leflunomide to inhibit DHODH, they successfully triggered ferroptosis to kill resistant cancer cells.
Why it matters
Triple-negative breast cancer is one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat forms of the disease; this discovery could lead to new, life-saving therapeutic strategies.
One of the most aggressive types of breast cancer may have a weakness that researchers have managed to exploit.
Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a type of breast cancer where the cancer cells do not have estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, or too much HER2 protein, according to the American Cancer Society.
This means that it has fewer treatment options, and can grow and spread faster than other types of invasive breast cancers, as hormone therapy or HER2-targeted drugs won't work.
Chemotherapy is often used to treat the cancer after surgery to reduce the chances of the cancer coming back, however there is a risk of the cells surviving, returning, and becoming resistant to treatment.
Now, researchers at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center have discovered a way to potentially reverse that resistance.
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