Scientists at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have found a new and hopeful way to treat triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), one of the hardest types of breast cancer to fight.
Their study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, introduces a powerful new treatment that may one day help patients with this aggressive disease.
Triple-negative breast cancer makes up about 10–15% of all breast cancer cases. It is more likely to affect younger women, Black women, and people with certain genetic mutations.
TNBC spreads faster than other breast cancers and does not respond well to common treatments like hormone therapy. Because of this, survival rates are lower, and patients have fewer options.
To tackle this challenge, the researchers used a method called an antibody-drug conjugate. This is a special system that links a strong cancer-killing drug to an antibody.
The antibody works like a guide, helping the drug find and attack the cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone. This makes it possible to safely use chemotherapy drugs that would otherwise be too toxic for the body.
The scientists focused on a protein called FZD7 that sits on the surface of certain TNBC cells. These cells are believed to be the ones that start and grow tumors. By designing a treatment that targets FZD7, they were able to shrink tumors in mice without causing harm to healthy tissue.
In their experiments, the team used mouse models and lab-grown tumor samples, called organoids, to test how well the treatment worked. They found that cancer cells with FZD7 were the most aggressive but also the most sensitive to the new therapy. This treatment also worked in lab tests using human TNBC cells.
Dr. Dennis Carson and Dr. Karl Willert led the study. They believe this new approach could eventually lead to more effective and targeted treatments for triple-negative breast cancer. The goal is to give hope to patients whose cancers do not respond to current therapies.
While this treatment is still in the early stages and more studies are needed before it can be used in hospitals, the results are very promising. If future research goes well, this method might also be used to treat other kinds of cancer that have similar types of tumor-initiating cells.
This discovery is a step toward creating cancer treatments that are not only more powerful but also more precise, reducing harm to healthy parts of the body while focusing on the cells that cause the most trouble.
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