• Science Saturday: Potential new treatment for breast cancer metastasis

a graphic illustrating the concept of breast cancer genomics
Breast cancer

metastasis might be preventable by using a class of drugs already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat estrogen positive breast cancer.  Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered that CDK4/6 inhibitors — which are approved to treat estrogen positive breast cancer — have the ability to target a protein called SNAIL involved in tumor metastasis.

This means that the drugs "Metastasis is a hallmark of cancer and a leading cause of cancer death," said Zhenkun Lou, Ph.D., senior author of a paper on the cancer study and a Mayo Clinic oncology researcher in Rochester, Minnesota. "Despite great progress in cancer therapy, the prevention of cancer metastasis is still an unfulfilled challenge."

The cancer metastasis paper was published online in the Jan. 9, 2017, issue of the journal Nature Communications.might also be able to prevent the spread of triple-negative breast cancer. Read the rest of the article on Forefront.

________________________________________________________

Other Mayo Clinic medical research websites: