This strategy attacks unapproachable metastatic breast cancer

How to attack cells that become resistant to treatments is urgently needed to control this type of cancer.

One of the innovative strategies is the one proposed by a team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (USA) in a study published in ‘Nature‘.

Using patient-derived samples in preclinical work, researchers discovered that combining two therapeutic agents could push the cells of this deadly tumor to a more treatable state.

“When combined, these therapeutic agents can hijack signals that occur naturally in the body to eliminate breast cells after breastfeeding cessation, thereby killing these aggressive cancer cells,” says lead author Karen Cichowski. “Our results provide compelling support for the development of clinical trials to test whether the combination of these agents could benefit patients with triple-negative breast cancer.”

Specifically, the researchers discovered that by combining two types of agents, known as EZH2 and AKT inhibitors, they could induce metastatic breast cancer cells to differentiate.

Once the cells differentiate, These agents kill tumor cells by triggering a process similar to involution.which typically occurs when breast tissue returns to a non-lactating state after the mother stops producing breast milk.

The researchers also used machine learning to predict patient responses, another step that could help pave the way for clinical trials in patients.

In future studies, this team is interested in exploring whether similar drug combinations may be effective in other tumor types.