Lung cancer drug could kill off lobular breast tumors

PanARMENIAN.Net - A drug used to treat lung cancer could also work for more than 7,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer each year.

The discovery provides hope for women with lobular breast cancer, The Daily Mail reports.

The cancer, which originates deep in the breasts’ milk-producing lobes, caused Miss Derbyshire to have a right-side mastectomy and reconstruction. BBC wildlife presenter Michaela Strachan also had a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with it a year earlier.

Scientists found the lung cancer drug crizotinib could help women with this type of cancer who carry a specific mutation. This mutation affects up to 90 per cent of women with lobular breast cancers, as well as some with ‘triple-negative’ breast cancer, which spreads faster than other types and is notoriously hard to treat.

In laboratory tests on mice and human cells, the drug caused breast tumor cells to die. The Institute of Cancer Research in London is now launching a £750,000 clinical trial in patients with advanced lobular breast cancer.

Miss Strachan, who was diagnosed with the cancer at 48 and underwent hormone therapy to treat it, said: ‘I’m one of the lucky ones, but for some women with lobular breast cancer it’s a very different story as hormone therapy may not work, and after that they have few options. This research could offer a new lifeline.’

The lung cancer drug was found to be effective for breast cancers with a mutation creating faulty versions of a protein called E-cadherin. This defect occurs in around one in eight cases of breast cancer, particularly lobular cancers, and is carried by an estimated 7,150 women diagnosed each year.