Scientists based at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute have discovered how receptors for the female sex hormone oestrogen attach to a different part of the DNA in breast cancer patients who are more likely to relapse, according to a study published in Nature.
Crucially, they also found that within these more aggressive breast cancers, the oestrogen receptor (ER) was being ‘redirected’ to a different part of the genome by a protein called FOXA1. So drugs that specifically block FOXA1 could help treat patients who do not respond to conventional hormone treatments, such as tamoxifen.
Image: A cluster of breast cancer cells Credit: Annie Cavanagh. Wellcome Images images@wellcome.ac.uk
Reproduced courtesy University of Cambridge Office of Communications