A mechanism favoring metastasis is identified
Swiss and Finnish researchers have made an important discovery in the treatment of the most common cancer in women.
Scientists have also discovered genetic signatures to identify patients at increased risk of metastasis.
Keystone/Gatton Bally
Swiss and Finnish scientists have discovered that granulocytes, white blood cells activated during acute inflammation, promote the appearance of metastases in breast cancer. The good news: There are ways to combat this devastating development.
Breast cancer The most common cancer in women. However, A Early detection And while modern treatments offer good prospects of cure for most patients, a quarter of cases progress to metastatic disease.
This Progress Favored by inflammation in and around the tumor. Managing to modulate it will provide new therapeutic opportunities, UNIFR said in a press release on Monday.
“Inflammatory mediators”
Curzio Rueg’s team at the University of Friborg (UNIFR), together with Kiang Lan of the University of Helsinki and Sanam Pevandi of the University of Lausanne, as well as colleagues from the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, identified a new mechanism linking inflammation and metastasis: granulocytes.
These white blood cells are usually present during acute inflammation which facilitates the formation of metastases. “In one way, cancer cells push granulocytes at the tumor site to produce inflammatory mediators, interleukin 6 and oncostatin,” explains Professor Rueg.
“It is these two mediators that, in a second step, transform breast cancer cells with high metastatic potential into cancer stem cells,” adds the researcher, as quoted in the press release.
A new treatment
Scientists have shown that inhibition of interleukin 6 and oncostatin produced by granulocytes suppresses cancer stem cell formation and metastasis. Although the mechanism was discovered using laboratory models, the team also observed similar phenomena in human breast cancer.
In addition, scientists have also discovered a genetic signature that makes it possible to identify patients with an increased risk of metastasis due to this method. The work, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, opens up possibilities for new treatments specifically for these patients.
Interleukin 6 inhibitors are indeed available and used effectively to treat patients with chronic inflammatory diseases.
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