Deadly familial stomach and lobular breast cancers could be successfully treated at their earliest stages, or even prevented, by existing drugs that have been newly identified by University of Otago researchers.
The research, supported by the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC), shows for the first time that the key genetic mutation underlying the devastating conditions also opens them up to attack through drug therapies targeting other cellular mechanisms.
The findings appear in the US journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.
Lead researcher Professor Parry Guilford and his team used genomic screening to search for vulnerabilities in the cancer cells that lack the tumour-suppressor protein E-cadherin. The genetic mutation that causes this protein to be lost is common in hereditary diffuse gastric and lobular breast cancers.
Read more on the University of Otago and New Zealand Herald websites.
Professor Guilford was presented with the HRC's Beaven Medal last year for this groundbreaking research into stomach cancer. He is currently lead researcher on two HRC projects, one looking at single cell RNA profiling for the early detection of urological cancers, and the other exploring synthetic lethal targeting of lobular breast cancer.
News article courtesy of the University of Otago.