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Subscribe to RSSThe discovery that a protein which triggers milk production in women may also be responsible for making breast cancers aggressive could open up new opportunities for treatment of the most common and deadliest form of cancer among women.
Found in all breast cells, the protein ELF5 tries to activate milk production even in breast cancer cells, which does not work and then makes the cancer more aggressive, according to scientists in Australia and Britain.
"The discovery opens up new avenues for therapy and for designing new markers that can predict response to therapy," said lead author Professor Chris Ormandy from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney.
In 2008, Ormandy's work linked ELF5 to milk production.
The latest research by Ormandy and his team, published in the journal PLOS Biology on Friday, went a step further to find the link between ELF5 and breast cancer.
"Cancer cells can't respond properly (to ELF5), so they ... acquire some characteristics ... that make the disease more aggressive and more refractory (resistant) to treatment with existing therapies," Ormandy said by telephone.
Ormandy and his team grew human breast cancer tissues, genetically manipulated to contain high amounts of ELF5, in petri dishes and saw how the protein proliferated aggressively.
Findings may help targeted therapy
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the top cause of cancer death among women, accounting for 23 percent of total cancer cases and 14 percent of cancer deaths in women.
To decide on treatment, doctors normally need to find out if the cancer has receptors for the hormones estrogen and progesterone, which, in the case of breast cancer patients, promote growth in their tumors.
Two-thirds of breast cancers are usually positive for estrogen receptors, which then require anti-hormonal therapies that lower estrogen levels in the patient or block estrogen from supporting the growth of the cancer.
For the remaining one-third of patients, their cancers do not have receptors, which means they won't benefit from hormonal therapies. Such patients are usually given other treatments, such as chemotherapy.
Ormandy's team found that cancers with these receptors had low levels of ELF5, while those without receptors had significantly higher levels of the protein.
"What we have shown in this paper is high ELF5 tumors are dependent on ELF5 for their proliferation and if we block ELF5 in high ELF5 tumors, we will block proliferation and that will treat the tumor," Ormandy said.
"If we can develop a drug that targets ELF5, it will be very useful for that group of women," he said.
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That is major. Bravo!
Dear Friends:
False advertisement and or incomplete news like this is what gets people to tell some girl to cut off her breasts just because. It is not all cancer. There are too many biopsyies that are benign. I would never have these done again. They killl from the threat of injury, disfigurement, or infection from the biopsy and more so than cancer.
What is the rate of cancer with birth control?
over xray exposure! As I was subjected to in Kingman Arizona. Swelling, open dripping.
Forget it! The medical pigs that call themselves doctors can go where the sun does not shine. You do not know what you are doing more times than ever.
Hey day! They would want woman to stop nursing their children or no milk at all. Men speak up! Please.
The disfigurement is gut wrenching and is ugly!
Laleche Society! woman who nurse and have milk in their glands are less likely to have cancer. What about this and birth control. Hormone pills takers have a higher cancer rate. Get real!
I've known several women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer while nursing. Explain that!
Overall, I'm not really sure what you're trying to say in your post. As a breast cancer survivor myself, I welcome news of new treatments and further knowledge about how this disease comes about. Like most cancers, the data seems to point toward genetics, not taking birth control, wearing bras, using underarm deoderant, etc. And eating broccoli won't prevent it or cure it...I ate broccoli almost daily prior to my diagnosis. Breast cancer is a beast that can afflict any woman.
How about taking preventive steps, a holistic approach, let nature take its course by just reproducing yourselves and breast feeding your offspring's, or that's not liberating, empowering or not to progressive.
Trueletterson Breast cancer does appear in mothers who have breast fed. Breast feeding produces more milk and according to this it is milk production that makes the cancer cells go nuts. so a preventative step then would be to not reproduce and therefore not produce milk and therefore not rile up those cancer cells. Is that liberating empowering and progressive enough for you?
Thanks Josephine 1266256. Good response. I'm a survivor and I never had children, hence, never breast fed. So, brca can affect anyone.
I have a (significant?) question to ask when it comes to effective treatment of early diagnosis breast cancer. My question is this, can lasers (and / or) cryogenic surgery be used to endoscopically, thermolitically isolate these early diagnosed breast cancers (thereby starving them from their blood supply, using scar tissue), without metastasizing them in the process ??? - RC
(i.e., create a surgical shell of scar tissue around these tumors in order to suppress & kill them? Gee, maybe everywhere else in the human body as well ???) - RC
(Many years ago I worked indirectly (for a short while) at the National Cancer Institute (in southern Calif.), where I was responsible for recompiling their years of records for the purposes of advanced cancer studies. My totally heart retching experience during this time was much like visiting the National Jewish Holocaust Museum; indeed, it was a truly a mind numbing holocaust experience on its own !!! Ever since then I have DESPERATELY been trying to come up with a universal solution to this growing threat of cancer, if only on my own. This is as close as I have ever been able to come to a universal solution to the threat of cancer in the meanwhile. Hope this helps someone out there somewhere along the way!) - RC
((i.e., excising cancer using a shell of scar tissue. (I am a former U.S. Special Forces advanced medic.))) - RC
Rick thanks for you compassion and caring. It is a rare commodity these days. thank you as well for your particular service. Medics are often overlooked when the hero tales are told. Thank you again for your caring and for helping to save the lives of so many of those other heroes
From the CDC:
Leading Causes of Cancer Death Among Women
Lung cancer (39.0)
Breast cancer (22.5)
Colorectal cancer (13.8)
Source: U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group. United States Cancer Statistics: 1999–2008 Incidence and Mortality Web-based Report. Atlanta (GA): Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Cancer Institute; 2012. Available at:
*Hispanic origin is not mutually exclusive from race categories (white, black, Asian/Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska Native).
Instead of saying"Leading Causes of Cancer Death Among Women", your headline should say "Most Lethal/Common Types of Cancer Death Among Women". This is just listing the most common types of lethal cancer by race, not the actual causes, which would indicate a causation of cancer, such as for example: smoking 4 packs a day, or being exposed to x-rays or other things that led to these types of cancer.
As a man I will say that I am all for anything that leads to the saving of breasts...