Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Low beclin 1 Activity Linked to Triple Negative Breast Cancer

The most aggressive type of breast cancer, triple negative breast cancer, occurs when the estrogen, progesterone, and the HER-2/neu gene receptors are not present in the cancerous tumor. Most breast cancer growth is accelerated by the receptors aforementioned. As a result, treatments such as hormone therapy or using drugs that target these receptors do not work. However, chemotherapy is still a viable option for treating the cancer. It is even thought that chemotherapy treats the earliest stages of triple negative breast cancer better than it treats other forms of cancer.   

At the UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have discovered a connection between triple negative breast cancer and an autophagy gene, beclin 1. It was found, through the analysis of two breast cancer databases, that a low activity level for the autophagy gene was linked to a higher rate of the cancer as well as a poorer outcome for the breast cancer patients. The data collected during this study is the first to ever connect beclin 1 and triple negative breast cancer and it supports research that was conducted through mouse models. As a result of this study, it has been realized that this could be a new pathway to focus on in the treatment of this aggressive cancer. It seems that therapies increasing the amount of beclin 1 activity in those with this breast cancer could potentially be helpful. 

The study, which was conducted using data from the United States Cancer Genome and the Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Symposium from the UK and Canada, used 3,057 breast cancer cases to observe the levels of expression of beclin 1 and BRCA1. BRCA1 is a gene that is linked with the inheritance of breast cancer. The Cancer Genome provided 1,067 cases to study, while the Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Symposium gave 1,992 cases. 

It was already known the beclin 1 and BRCA1 genes were missing from approximately 35% of all breast cancers, but it needed to be discovered which of the two genes was important. This was done by looking at the expression and seeing how that related to the clinical features of breast cancer. Low levels of beclin 1 expression, but not BRCA1 correlated to adverse clinical features. Breast cancer patients with low beclin 1 activity had a 67% increase in the risk of dying of breast cancer as opposed to cancer patients with higher activity levels of beclin 1. It was also shown that low levels of beclin 1 activity corresponded to a 35-fold higher risk of developing triple negative breast cancer in the first place.

As a result of this research, therapies that increase beclin 1 activity have been suggested as new treatments for triple negative breast cancer. There are already a few drugs that increase beclin 1 activity being used to treat other cancers. The drugs approved to treat these cancers are divided into four classes, which are inhibitors of either beclin 1/BCL-2 binding, protein kinase B (AKT), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), or HER2. Further studies need to be completed in order to determine if these therapies will be a viable treatment for those with triple negative breast cancer.

I have never heard of triple negative breast cancer and had no idea it was the most aggressive type of breast cancer. I really only thought that there was one type of breast cancer. Now that I know more about this form of breast cancer I think that it is awesome that they have possibly found another route to treat it seeing as how it does not respond to hormone therapy. If drugs increasing beclin 1 activity could treat the cancer it would most likely save more lives and save people the misery of going through chemotherapy. This could offer a more comfortable treatment option that is not so hazardous on the body as well. All in all it seems like this could potentially be something very promising. Only the future will tell if it will actually work.



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