On Monday 3 August 2009, research findings from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute received extensive coverage in media outlets including The Age and ABC Radio.
Published in the journal Nature Medicine, the findings suggest a population of breast cells called ‘luminal progenitor cells’ may be responsible for the development of ‘basal-like’ breast cancer, a particularly aggressive form of the disease.
NBOCC comment
Approximately 10-15 per cent of all breast cancers are ‘basal-like’ cancers. Basal-like breast tumours have specific markers, which make them more aggressive and predict poorer outcomes. Women who carry the BRCA1 gene mutation are more likely to have basal-like breast cancers.
Standard hormonal therapies, such as tamoxifen and Herceptin®, and some standard chemotherapy drugs are not effective in women with basal-like breast tumours.
The discovery of the role of luminal progenitor cells in the development of ‘basal-like’ breast cancer and the identification of a key marker of these cells provides another potential target in the treatment of breast cancer. Gaining more knowledge about the biology of breast cancer is a crucial step in the development of therapies to more effectively target individual tumours.
While this is an important discovery, many years of further research will be required to potentially target luminal progenitor cells for breast cancer prevention or treatment. Therefore, there are no implications for current clinical practice.
