A new medical breakthrough of “global significance” could help doctors target the most deadly and difficult to treat breast cancers.
Scientists backed by Cancer Council Queensland found a certain type of gene could have a big impact on cancer survival rates.
A year ago, they found patients with a more elevated expression of the gene receptor were as much as 20-25 per cent more likely to live through about a quarter of all breast cancers without relapse or the cancer spreading.
Their latest studies showed that was mostly done by reducing the pathways that allowed the cancer to spread and grow.
In even better news, that gene receptor, ROR gamma, belongs to a family that’s proven particularly susceptible to manipulation from drugs.
As a result, lead author Professor George Muscat from the University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience was confident of translating the research into real-world treatment.
There is a long way to go but he says, if successful, a new drug could be saving lives worldwide within four to five years.
“The increase in survival would be difficult to postulate,” Professor Muscat said.
“But at the moment, what we can say is if you look at thousands of patients and look at their survival, a drug could potentially increase the chance of survival by 20 or 30 per cent.
“But that’s very hypothetical at present.”
They tested the gene receptor’s ability to control cancer cells inside petri dishes in the lab, with promising results.
The gene expression reduced the spread of a range of breast cancers associated with women producing less estrogen. Those cancers generally have less treatment options and were the most difficult to fight.
“This receptor controls pathways in breast cancer that control the movement and invasion of the tumour into other cells and the spreading of the tumours,” the molecular biologist said.
“This (gene) receptor actually attenuates those pathways.”
In the shorter term, the team is planning animal testing within the next one to two years.
The researchers will test several experimental drugs and consider developing their own to see what effects they might have on the gene.
About 3000 Australians die from breast cancer every year out of roughly 16,000 diagnoses.
The cancer council helped fund the research, published earlier this month in the open access journal EBioMedicine, to the tune of $400,000 over four years.
“This is research of global significance and could help to prevent worldwide deaths from breast cancer,” CCQ spokeswoman Katie Clift said.
“Impressively, this work has been co-funded by community donations, demonstrating the direct impact of individual giving.”