The study found new breast cancer proteins

University of Cardiff have discovered a protein that drives invasive breast cancer, which they say could be the target of new and improved therapies.There are 150 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed in the UK every day, 23% of which are reported as preventable.Professor Matt Smalley, from cardiff University's European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute, said of the findings: "In order to achieve better outcomes for people facing the disease, we need to better understand how it develops so that we can improve treatments." We wanted to know what drives an aggressive form of breast cancer called triple negative, which is resistant to hormone therapy and occurs in about 15% of cases. We studied a protein called LYN that helps keep cells alive and divide them, and found that it is no longer properly controlled in invasive breast cancer cells and may drive the growth, spread and invasion of cancer cells.team found that in a subgen group of triple-negative breast cancer cells associated with the BRCA1 gene mutation, the newly discovered protein - LYN - can directly initiate and increase cancer cell survival by losing BRCA1, a human tumor suppressor responsible for repairing DNA genes. The researchers also found that interfering with LYN function under experimental conditions killed these BRCA1 mutant cells. Matt Smalley went on to explain: "In the future, we may identify patients with elevated levels of LYN or BRCA1 gene mutations and design breast cancer treatments based on their cancer type. We can improve treatment options for invasive breast cancer for LYN. " (Compiled by this web)