Monash researchers find key to blocking breast cancer spread
Professor Paul Hertzog
Monash researchers have discovered an immune genetic signature in breast cancer cells that regulates their spread to bones, providing a promising target for future treatments.
Research published recently in Nature Medicine details how Professor Paul Hertzog and his group at the Monash Institute for Medical Research’s Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases collaborated with Belinda Parker and team at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre to discover the role played by the interferon immune signal in breast cancer metastasis.
The interferon immune signal, which stimulates immune attack against invading viruses and bacteria, is switched off in breast cancer in some cases, enabling cancer cells to hide from the immune system and spread, or metastasise, usually to bone.
Interferon-based therapies that effectively, stimulate the immune system to go on the attack, have been used to treat hepatitis, multiple sclerosis and some tumours. Based on promising pre-clinical tests, the team hopes the therapies will translate effectively to breast cancer to reactivate the 'hidden' immune signal.
Professor Hertzog said while interferon therapies had been recognised as effective treatment for other diseases, it was totally unexpected to discover that this response was important in breast cancer metastases.
“The body has evolved a system to fight infections and inflammatory diseases but normally we would not identify it in cancer situations," Professor Hertzog said.
“This collaborative research project has the potential to be translated into new diagnosis and treatment options targeting breast cancer metastases, something that we could not have predicted five years ago.”