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New Chemo Cocktail Blocks Breast Cancer 'Like A Fence'

Drug aimed at preventing spread of breast cancer to organs

By James Limbach
ConsumerAffairs.com

October 9, 2009

Breast Cancer • Recommended Changes to Breast Cancer Screenings Cause Controversy • Optical Biopsy Provides Surgery-Free Diagnosis • Breast Cancer Lawsuit Alleged Needless Suffering, Death • New Chemo Cocktail Blocks Breast Cancer 'Like A Fence' • Physically Fit Women Less Likely To Die Of Breast Cancer • No Link Found Between Caffeine and Breast Cancer Risk • Older Women at Greater Risk of Breast Cancer • Companies Agree To Cut Cancer-Causing Chemicals In Potato Chips • What Women -- and Men -- Should Know about Breast Cancer • Daily Aspirin May Reduce Risk of Breast Cancer • FDA Approves New Genetic Test for Breast Cancer • Gene Mutation Spreads Breast Cancer • Research Finds Green Tea Helpful Against Breast Cancer • Marijuana Compound May Fight Breast Cancer • Mayo Clinic Sees New Hope In Breast Cancer Drug • FDA Approves Evista For Reducing Breast Cancer Risk • Side Effects Drive Women from Breast Cancer Drug • Hypnosis Reduces Pain and Costs in Breast Cancer Surgery • Grapefruit Linked to Breast Cancer • Study Finds No Link Between Abortion, Miscarriage and Breast Cancer • Falling Breast Cancer Rates Linked to Declining Use of Hormone Replacement Therapy • Hispanic Women Three Times More Likely to Develop Advanced Breast Cancer • MRI Screening of Opposite Breast Necessary for Women with Breast Cancer • FDA Approves Tykerb for Advanced Breast Cancer Patients • FDA Clears New Breast Cancer Test • Needle Biopsy May Not Be Enough to Rule Out Breast Cancer in Some Cases • Red Meat May Increase Breast Cancer Risk • Breast Cancer Survivors Skipping Mammograms, Study Finds • Breast Implant Complications Frequent, Study Finds • Tests Show Drug Fights Aggressive Breast Cancer • California Sues to Require Cancer Warnings on Potato Chips and French Fries • Study Ties Fries To Breast Cancer Risk • Low-Fat Diet May Reduce Risk of Recurrent Breast Cancer • Study Suggests Pain Reliever, Breast Cancer Link • Trials Show Herceptin Aids Breast Cancer Recovery • That Pink Ribbon Can Be Misleading, Consumer Group Warns • Survival Better When Breast Cancer Detected Through Mammography

Think of a protective fence that blocks the neighbor's dog from charging into your backyard. The body, too, has fences -- physical and biochemical barriers that keep cells in their place.

When breast cancer spreads or metastasizes, it crashes through the body's protective fences. The disease becomes fatal when it travels outside the mammary ducts, enters the bloodstream and spreads to the bones, liver or brain.

Currently, there are only drugs that try to stem the uncontrolled division of cancer cells within the ducts. Until now, no drugs specifically targeted the invasion and spread of breast cancer to the organs.

A researcher from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has found a way to strengthen the breast's "fence" to prevent cancer from metastasizing. Researcher Seth Corey, M.D., has discovered that when a drug normally used to treat leukemia is added to a commonly used breast cancer drug, the potent new chemotherapy cocktail helps prevent breast cancer cells from invading.

"This is an entirely new way of targeting a cancer cell," said Corey, the Sharon B. Murphy-Steven T. Rosen Research Professor of Cancer Biology and Chemotherapy at the Feinberg School and director of the pediatric oncology program at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

Working in the lab with women's breast cancer cells, Corey found that when the leukemia drug dasatinib is combined with the breast cancer drug doxorubicin, the potent mix inhibits breast cancer cell invasion by half. Corey is the principal investigator of the study, which recently was reported in the British Journal of Cancer.

Dasatinib targets an enzyme called the Src kinase, which is believed to play a key role in breast cancer invasion and metastases.

"Perhaps this drug could be given to prevent invasion from happening in the first place," said Corey, who also is a pediatric oncologist at Children's Memorial Hospital. "This might keep the disease in check and prevent it from progressing."

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