Poorva Chavan
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Written By: Poorva Chavan | Updated : February 8, 2015 2:55 PM IST
Triple negative breast cancer is the type of cancer of which is most difficult to treat as genes for genes for estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and Her2/neu are not expressed and chemotherapies involved in the treatment target one of these receptors. This type of cancer is now linked to the deficiency in a gene that controls autophagy, a process that recycles or degrades cell waste. (Read: Can protein therapy replace chemotherapy in cancer treatment?)
The researchers at the UT Southwestern Medical Center, analysed the two large databases of breast cancer and found that activity of an autophagy gene, beclin 1, was related to both a higher incidence of triple-negative breast cancer and a poorer prognosis for breast cancer patients.
Low beclin 1 expression increases the risk of having a triple negative breast cancer by 35 times, Dr. Beth Levine, Director of the Center for Autophagy Research, informed. Along with this increased risk the findings showed, low levels of beclin 1 activity also correlated with worse outcomes. (Read: World Cancer Day: Latest research and advances in cancer treatment)
These findings throw light on new therapies for treating triple negative breats cancer by increasing beclin 1 activity. Several approved drugs that happen to increase beclin 1 activity are already used for other types of cancer. They included four classes of drugs: inhibitors of either beclin 1/BCL-2 binding, protein kinase B (AKT), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), or HER2.
Dr. Levine's research team studies genes involved in the autophagy process and their roles in cancer, aging, infections, and neurodegenerative diseases, while Dr. Xie's UT Southwestern lab focuses on improving cancer treatments through statistical and computational analysis of biological and clinical data.
With inputs from ANI
Image source: Getty Images
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