One characteristic of aggressive cancers is their ability to metastasize, or spread, to other parts of the body. Researchers have discovered a gene that seems to play a critical role in the spread of breast cancer, according to an article in the January 6, 2009 issue of the journal Cancer Cell.

One characteristic of aggressive cancers is their ability to metastasize, or spread, to other parts of the body. Researchers have discovered a gene that seems to play a critical role in the spread of breast cancer, according to an article in the January 6, 2009 issue of the journal Cancer Cell .

Scientists from Princeton University, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey, and their colleagues reported that women with aggressive breast cancers have abnormalities in a gene called MTDH. They found that, when they injected mice with tumor cells taken from breast cancer patients with MTDH alterations, the mice developed tumors that were both more likely to spread and more likely to be resistant to chemotherapy. They also found that, when they altered the tumors to block the MTDH gene, the tumors lost their ability to metastasize and became more responsive to chemotherapy.

Less than 30 percent of women with metastatic breast cancer survive five years or more. The scientists suggest that drugs that block the MTDH gene could keep local breast tumors from spreading, improving cancer prognosis. Additional research is needed to determine if these drugs would be effective in humans and to see if MTDH plays a role in the spread of other types of cancers, as well.

Source

Cancer Cell. 2009;15:9-20