Researchers have identified a new protein involved in the
development of drug resistance in breast cancer which could be a
target for new treatments, they report today in the journal
Nature Medicine. In a mouse model of breast cancer, blocking
production of the protein using genetic techniques caused
tumours to shrink. The scientists are now looking for new drugs
which could achieve a similar effect. Breast cancer is the most
common cancer in the UK, affecting about 46,000 women each year.
More than two thirds of breast tumours contain oestrogen
receptors, meaning that they require the hormone oestrogen to
grow and they can be treated with anti-oestrogen drugs such as
tamoxifen. However, many patients develop resistance to these
treatments so that the drugs eventually cease to be effective.
In today's study, researchers from Imperial College London found
that blocking a protein called LMTK3 in human cancer cells that
were resistant to tamoxifen made the cells more responsive to
the drug. In a mouse model of t