Breast cancer ‘timebomb’ a step closer to being solved

By Pol Allingham via SWNS

Scientists have developed a technique to prevent the 'timebomb' of breast cancer when secondary cancer lies dormant before suddenly activating.

Breast cancer cells that spread to the lungs can lie sleeping for years before “waking up” as incurable secondary tumors.

But researchers are now one step closer to stopping the resurgence.

For the first time, Institute of Cancer Research oncologists put the secondary cancer growth down to molecular changes in the lung caused by aging.

By blocking the changes using pre-existing cancer medicine the researchers managed to “significantly reduce” secondary cancer growth.

Protein PDGF-C often increases in our lungs as we get older. It was found to influence whether inactive breast cancer stays asleep or “wakes up.”

Scarring or damaging PDGF-C could also accelerate dormant cancer cells growing into secondary breast cancer.

During the study, scientists blocked PDGF-C activity using an existing cancer medicine, imatinib, used for chronic myeloid leukemia patients.

As a result, secondary cancer growth was “significantly reduced.”

For years patients with the most common type of breast cancer, oestrogen receptor positive (ER+), have a continued risk of their cancer returning to another part of their body - even after the original diagnosis and treatment.

Each year in the United States, about 264,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in women and about 2,400 in men, according to the CDC. Up to 80 percent of primary breast cancers are ER+.

One 38-year-old mom suffering from ER+ breast cancer in the UK praised the research into secondary cancer growth because she could “never be complacent” that her cancer wouldn’t return.

The woman, from Swansea, Wales, underwent a mastectomy, lymph node removal, chemotherapy and radiotherapy after being diagnosed in 2021.

In May 2022, three months after finishing treatment, she was told the cancer had spread to her sternum and later her spine.

Currently, she receives targeted cancer drug ribociclib, hormone therapy, and has a scan every three months.

She said: “I've seen some women finish treatment and ring that bell and celebrate it being over, and this always worries me as you can never be complacent that it won’t return.

“Finding out the cancer had spread when I thought it was all in the past was heart-breaking.

“That’s why it’s so important that research into secondary breast cancer happens so we can find new ways to stop women going through what I’m experiencing.

“My life is very different now as I had to leave my job in adult social services and give up the degree I was studying for.

“But I remain positive and I try not to let it get to me. It’s made me appreciate things more and I think it has made me a better person.

“Research like this gives me hope for women being treated for breast cancer in the future.

"I don't want to waste my precious time being bitter or angry.”

Mice with ER+ tumors were given the leukemia growth blocker which targeted PDGF-C.

Imatinib was administered before and after the tumors developed. For both groups, the cancer growth in the lung was significantly reduced.

Dr. Frances Turrell, Division of Breast Cancer Research at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK, said: "Cancer cells can survive in distant organs for decades by hiding in a dormant state.

“We’ve discovered how aging lung tissue can trigger these cancer cells to ‘reawaken’ and develop into tumors, and uncovered a potential strategy to ‘defuse’ these ‘time bombs.'

“We now plan to better unpick how patients might benefit from the existing drug imatinib, and in the long term aim to create more specific treatments targeted at the ‘reawakening’ mechanism."

Professor Clare Isacke, Molecular Cell Biology at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said the team writing in Nature Cancer hopes to create more specific treatments targeting the return of the disease.

She said: “This is an exciting stride forward in our understanding of advanced breast cancer – and how and why breast cancer cells form secondary tumors in the lungs.

“Next we need to pinpoint when these age-related changes happen and how they vary between people so that we can create treatment strategies that prevent cancer cells ‘reawakening’.”

Dr. Simon Vincent, director of research at Breast Cancer Now, which funded the study, said that working towards a cure is vital.

He said: “We know that for years after finishing breast cancer treatment many women fear the disease returning. With an estimated 61,000 people living with secondary breast cancer in the UK, more research to understand and treat it is vital.

“This exciting discovery brings us a step closer to understanding how we can slow down or stop the development of ER+ secondary breast cancer in the lung.

“It has the potential to benefit thousands of women living with this ‘time bomb’ in the future, ensuring fewer patients receive the devastating news the disease has spread.”