Australia: Researchers from Australia believe they have better treatment for the deadliest and most aggressive type of breast cancer.
The new treatment method, unlike chemotherapy, targets and slows the growth of only cancerous cells in breast tissue, not healthy, normal cells.
“This is an exciting development in the battle against triple negative breast cancer, which is the most aggressive form of the disease,” said Associate Professor Theresa Hickey, an internationally recognised breast cancer expert at the University of Adelaide’s Dame Roma Mitchell Cancer Research Laboratories.
The medication, which is intended to be taken orally, acts by specifically targeting CDK9, a protein that accelerates the growth of cells in malignant tumors. It basically halts cancer in its tracks by suppressing this protein.
“We’ve developed CDDD11-8 as a potent, selective, and orally bioactive CDK9 inhibitor for cancer therapy. We are very excited about its therapeutical potential against triple negative breast cancer shown by Associate Professor Hickey,” said Professor Wang.
Every year in Australia, about 2500 women receive a triple-negative breast cancer diagnosis. It is more common for younger women to get this kind of breast cancer. Compared to other breast cancers during this period, it has a higher mortality rate and a higher rate of relapse within five years.
In order to choose patients for upcoming trials, researchers want to find the biomarkers that indicate which triple-negative breast cancers will react most favourably to the inhibitor medication.
Future trials will be carried out by researchers to investigate whether other forms of breast cancer could be treated with this promising therapy.
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