Scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered something new that may help fight a serious problem for patients with aggressive inflammatory breast cancer.
This type of breast cancer spreads quickly, and one of its most dangerous complications is brain metastasis—when the cancer spreads to the brain.
Right now, there are no effective treatments that specifically stop breast cancer from spreading to the brain, and doctors still don’t fully understand how it happens. But this new study brings hope. The researchers found that a protein called soluble E-cadherin, or sEcad for short, may play a major role in helping cancer cells spread to the brain.
The researchers were especially interested in sEcad because earlier studies had shown that people with higher levels of this protein in their blood were more likely to have brain metastases and also had worse survival rates. They wanted to understand exactly what sEcad does and whether it could be stopped.
In their experiments, they used preclinical models of inflammatory breast cancer. When the cancer cells produced a lot of sEcad, they became more aggressive. These cells were better at spreading, especially to the brain. The mice with high levels of sEcad had shorter survival and more tumors in the brain.
The team also discovered how sEcad causes trouble. It activates a pathway in the body known as the CXCR2 signaling pathway. This pathway makes the cancer cells harder to kill, helps them spread, and causes inflammation in the brain. All of these effects make it easier for the cancer to take hold and grow in new places.
To test if they could block this process, the researchers gave the mice a drug that stops the CXCR2 pathway. The results were encouraging. The treatment slowed the spread of cancer and helped the mice live longer. This suggests that blocking either sEcad or CXCR2 might be a way to treat or even prevent brain metastasis.
One exciting part of this discovery is that sEcad can be measured in the blood. That means it could be used as a warning sign to identify patients who are more likely to develop brain metastases. If doctors know who is most at risk, they could monitor those patients more closely or even begin preventive treatment earlier.
The study was led by Dr. Xiaoding Hu and Dr. Bisrat Debeb and was published in the journal Neuro-Oncology. The findings could change how we approach inflammatory breast cancer, especially for those at risk of brain metastasis.
Still, the researchers note that more studies are needed. This study was done in preclinical models, and the results need to be confirmed in humans. The team also wants to learn more about how to safely block the CXCR2 pathway in patients.
In summary, this research highlights a new way to understand and possibly prevent one of the deadliest problems in breast cancer. It opens the door to future treatments that could give patients more time and better quality of life.
If you care about breast cancer, please read studies about how eating patterns help ward off breast cancer, and soy and plant compounds may prevent breast cancer recurrence.
For more health information, please see recent studies about how your grocery list can help guard against caner, and a simple way to fight aging and cancer.
The study is published in Neuro-Oncology.
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