A study by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has illuminated a specific mechanism by which oestrogen receptor-positive (ER ) breast cancers can become resistant to standard therapies and metastasize.
The scientists say the mechanism explains why breast cancers with mutations in the ER gene itself — the target of drugs such as aromatase inhibitors and tamoxifen — become resistant to these therapies and are prone to become metastatic.
Resistance to therapy for ER-positive breast cancer is a common cause of breast cancer mortality and a major unmet need.
Myles Brown, MD, director of the Center for Functional Cancer Epigenetics at Dana-Farber, and Rinath Jeselsohn, MD, of Dana-Farber’s Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers, led a research team reporting the findings in Cancer Cell.
Source: eCancer News
