Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Gene Identified that Drives Aggressive form of Breast Cancer

Stem Cells
Researches have found that the gene "inhibitor of differentiation 4" (ID4) may be highly correlated with the most aggressive form of breast cancer, known as triple-negative breast cancer. This type of breast cancer lacks estrogen, progesterone, and HER2 receptors in the cancer cells, which makes the prognosis much worse for patients with this type of cancer, as those receptors can be targeted with medication. Not having these receptors in the cancer cells means there is nothing for the drug to react with, providing no help to the patient.

The researchers found that the more aggressive version of triple-negative breast cancer appears to originate from stem cells. ID4 was found to be responsible for the stem cells to form into specialized cells, possibly of the worse of the two triple-negative types. It was found that when ID4 was inhibited in the stem cells, estrogen receptors and other genes responsible for a better prognosis for breast cancer patients were activated. Cancer cells with the estrogen receptor are responsive to the drug Tamoxifen. Further research is being done on ID4 to better understand the role it plays in the treatment for breast caner. 

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