A breakthrough in breast cancer research has seen scientists discover how to kill "hibernating" tumour cells. It paves the way for new treatment that would prevent the cancer from returning. According to Sky News, the objective of the study was to find out why breast cancer returns years after initial treatment. They discovered that hormone therapies, used to prevent breast cancer from recurring, can trigger changes in some cells. These changes cause the cells to lie dormant instead of dying off and they wake up years later, causing a relapse.
It offers new hope for patients with oestrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer, which grows in response to the hormone oestrogen.
ER+ makes up 80 per cent of all breast cancers, of which 55,500 cases are diagnosed in the UK every year.
"After surgery to remove primary oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer, patients are given five to 10 years of hormone therapy which aims to kill any remaining cancer cells," Luca Magnani, professor of epigenetic plasticity at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, told Sky News.
"We know that this doesn't work for all patients though, as their breast cancer can return years, or even decades later. We wanted to better understand why breast cancer does return so we can hopefully find ways to stop it - so people don't have to live in fear or face the devastating news of a relapse," he further said.
The study has been published in the journal Cancer Discovery. It looked at the role of an enzyme known as G9a.
Researchers found that inhibiting G9a prevented cancer cells from becoming dormant and killed the cells that were already hibernating.
"Although at an early stage, the findings reveal potential new targets for the development of innovative treatments that prevent breast cancer from coming back," said Dr Tayyaba Jiwani, science engagement manager at Cancer Research UK.
Breast cancer is a disease in which abnormal breast cells grow out of control and form tumours. If left unchecked, the tumours can spread throughout the body and become fatal.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), 2.4 million women were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022 and 670,000 of them died.
