Medical experts make advances in breast cancer treatment
Local medical experts announced they have found the mechanisms responsible for drug resistance in breast cancer chemotherapy.
Breast cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer in women, while triple-negative breast cancer, which affects 15 to 20 percent of breast cancer patients, is the most complex and deadly form. It has a much higher chance of relapse and metastasis.
Such breast cancer does not express the genes for HER2, progesterone receptors, or estrogen receptors. Therefore, chemotherapy is the only treatment option, and the long-term treatment outcome is poor.
However resistance to chemotherapy remains a major challenge for effective treatment of patients with triple negative cancer.
The research was published by world-leading journal Science Translational Medicine.
Accelerated tumor progression after chemotherapy has been observed in a small number of patients; however, molecular mechanisms underlying this phenomenon remain unclear.
The interplay of cancer-associated fibroblasts with cancer cells resulting in resilient adaptation to survive in a stressful environment created by chemotherapy is largely unknown.
Targeting tumor micro-environment, Dr Wang Hongxia from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center for the first time identified TSPAN8 myofibroblast is closely related with chemoresistance and poor survival in triple negative patients, bringing a potential target for new drug development.
The research was published by world-leading journal Science Translational Medicine.
Editor Dorothy Hallberg said the work "suggests a potential target that requires further investigation."
