Sydney: Researchers in Australia have identified a key mechanism behind treatment resistance in estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer, the most common subtype worldwide.
The study has unveiled a promising avenue for the development of more effective therapies, offering hope to patients and professionals alike.
This is according to a statement released on Monday by the Sydney-based Garvan Institute of Medical Research.
Scientists found that inactivation of a stress pathway makes ER+ breast cancer cells ignore stress signals and evade treatment.
It said that the study was published in Italy’s Journal of Experimental and Clinical Cancer Research.
The team found out that inactivating the JNK pathway enabled cancer cells to resist endocrine therapy combined with CDK4/6 inhibitors.
CDK4/6 inhibitors are a standard first-line treatment for high-risk patients.
The JNK pathway, as the study explains, serves as a crucial cellular alarm, prompting damaged cells to halt division or self-destruct in response to stress, such as cancer treatments.
“When we knocked out genes involved in the JNK pathway, cancer cells continued to grow despite the treatment.
“These cells also spread to form more metastases in preclinical models,” said the study’s first author, Sarah Alexandrou from the Garvan Institute and Australia’s University of New South Wales (UNSW).
This resistance was observed both in laboratory experiments and in tumour samples from patients, where low JNK activity was correlated with poor response to therapy, the study showed.
Co-author Associate Prof. Liz Caldon from the Garvan Institute and the UNSW highlighted that screening for JNK pathway activity could predict which breast cancer patients won’t benefit from standard therapy.
Digging into this research, Thediggernews.com through its findings, discovers that the key mechanism behind breast cancer treatment resistance is the inactivation of the JNK pathway.
By identifying the role of the JNK pathway, this research paves the way for more personalised and effective treatments, instilling confidence in the future of cancer therapy.