Health News - Breast Cancer

Blocking Enzyme Could Halt Breast Cancer Spread
Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD

Interesting News to read...

Developing a new drug that blocks a key enzyme could stop breast cancer spreading to other parts of the body, according to a new UK study.

Dr Janine Erler at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London, and colleagues, used lab models to show that blocking the enzyme lysyl oxidase-like 2 (LOXL2) reduced the spread of the cancer from the breast to the lungs, liver and bone.

You can read about their findings in the journal Cancer Research, where an early edition of their paper first appeared online on 13 January.

Metastasis, is where cancer spreads from the primary tumor to other parts of the body. In breast cancer this process is complex and involves several stages.

Once metastases, or tumors in other parts of the body that came from the primary breast cancer tumor, are detected, the median survival is less than two years, which is why it is so important to develop effective new treatments for patients with aggressive breast cancer.

Analysis of data already available shows that LOXL2 expression is linked with spread and decreased survival in patients with aggressive breast cancer, wrote Erler and colleagues in their background information.

LOXL2 has also been linked to the spread of other cancers including colon, esophageal and squamous cell cancers, so any findings from this study have knock on effects in these other cancer types too.

For this pre-clinical study, Erler and colleagues looked at how LOXL2 behaves in breast cancer spread, in both patient samples and models based on lab animals.

They found that in breast cancer occurring both normally and genetically induced in lab animals with both compromised and competent immune systems, it was possible to inhibit LOXL2 genetically, chemically and using antibodies and demonstrated that this led to reduced metastasis.

When they investigated the underlying mechanism, they found LOXL2 helped cancer cells invade surrounding tissue by regulating the expression and activity of two proteins that operate from cell to cell: TIMP1 and MMP9. Other studies have suggested these two proteins play important roles in allowing cancer to spread.

The researchers concluded that their findings highlight the important role that LOXL2 plays in the progression of breast cancer, and suggest drugs that block its action could be used to treat women with advanced breast cancer.

Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com