Gene Identified That Drives Aggressive Form of Breast Cancer

Triple negative breast cancers are breast cancers that lack estrogen, progesterone and the human epidermal growth factor receptors (HER2). Breast cancers that have these receptors can be targeted by drugs.

While the more benign form of triple-negative breast cancer appears to originate from specialized cells, the team found that the aggressive form of the disease seems to originate from stem cells. When ID4 is blocked in a stem cell, other genes that drive cell specialization are activated. In addition, the estrogen receptor and a number of other genes expressed by forms of breast cancer with better prognoses are also activated. Furthermore, ID4 is specifically expressed by a subset of human basal-like breast cancers (BLBC) that possess a very poor prognosis and a transcriptional signature similar to a mammary stem cell.

Alexander Swarbrick, PhD, the corresponding author of the study, said, “Estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers have a relatively good prognosis because the drug tamoxifen is very effective at blocking the estrogen receptor and hence their growth. We speculate, therefore, that by blocking ID4 it might be possible to turn stem-cell-like breast cancers into less aggressive breast cancers that may even respond to tamoxifen. If we are correct, that would be remarkable.” The study was published on March 27, 2015, in the journal Nature Communications.

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Garvan Institute of Medical Research