Preventing tumor cell communication can slow breast cancer progression
Many doctors recommend that breast cancer patients buy Tamoxifen in order to help slow the progression of the disease.
Many doctors recommend that breast cancer patients buy Tamoxifen in order to help slow the progression of the disease. Previous studies have shown that tumor cells ensure their own survival by communicating their needs to the uninfected cells in the proximity. According to researchers from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, preventing this process may help reduce the proliferation of basal breast cancer.
Lead authors Sandra O'Toole and Alex Swarbrick analyzed breast tumor samples from a total of 279 women. They looked at a molecule called hedgehog, which is responsible for transmitting biochemical signals between the tumor cells and the healthy cells.
The researchers observed that the higher the level of hedgehog, the more aggressive the cancer was. In their paper, which was published in the journal Cancer Research, they said that these findings could drive the progress of clinical trials to test anti-hedgehog medications for breast cancer.
"Finding an effective drug target for basal breast cancer is a very high priority," Swarbrick said. "It doesn't produce any of the estrogen, progesterone or HER2 receptors, targets of the drugs tamoxifen and Herceptin, which are very effective in other breast cancers."
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