#48 A Little Bit Closer Now

The Answer to How Breast Cancer Invades Bone

By Melissa Weber

Researchers recently solved the mystery of how breast cancer takes root in the bone. Now, the discovery has led to an experimental drug for breast cancer that has spread to the bone.

At Princeton University, Society grantee Yibin Kang, PhD, found breast cancer cells use a protein called Jagged1 to upset the normal balance of bone builders and bone demolishers. Jagged1 recruits cells that normally break down bone to dig deeper into it. This in turn releases molecules that further spur cancer growth.

“We knew the bone is a fertile soil for breast cancer to spread to. But we didn’t know why. We didn’t know how to make bone less fertile soil,” says Kang, Princeton’s Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis professor of molecular biology. “Now that we know, the next step is to design drugs to break that vicious cycle.”

Breast cancer spreads, or metastasizes, to the bone in 70% to 80% of patients with advanced breast cancer. These malignant cells invade the spine, ribs, pelvis and other bones, causing pain, fractures and other complications. Current treatments offer symptom control but little else, Kang says. “The hope is that with more options, more combined agents, we can effectively control bone metastasis and hopefully treat it as a chronic condition,” he says.

Kang and his lab team are now working with drug maker Amgen to test an experimental monoclonal antibody (a man-made protein) that blocks Jagged1 in mice.

My response:

The research out of Princeton University had me giddy with relief and excitement.  "The hope is that with more options, more combined agents, we can effectively control bone metastasis and hopefully treat it as a chronic condition,” according to Yibin Kang, PhD. Hallelujah!  And then I read the last sentence.  Mice--they are still working on mice.  It hasn't even proceeded to the testing on humans; an annoyingly long and difficult process that we know takes more time and more money--always, the money factor.  Slowly slowly the wheels turn on metastatic cancer research and patiently (and hopefully) the mets clan awaits their discovery.  

Thanks for reading # 48 of 7777.