The latest research progress of breast cancer

May 15, 2019 / bioun / - breast cancer is one of the most important cancers that seriously threaten women's life and health In this paper, the latest research progress on the pathogenesis, recurrence, metastasis and treatment of breast cancer was reviewed and shared with you 【1】 ELife: discover the new mechanism of breast cancer recurrence doi: https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.43653.001 for many women who think they have conquered breast cancer, it is a particularly cruel thing for breast cancer to return after many years, but at present, researchers have no clear answer for the reason and way of breast cancer recurrence Now, a team at the Duke Cancer Institute has revealed some extremely unknown details that could lead to the development of potential strategies to stop the process In experiments on mice, the researchers tracked a series of events that allowed a small number of cancer cells resistant to treatment to wake up, grow and spread from dormancy, the results of which were published in eLife "These are cancer cells left over from the treatment, and we don't know much about them because we don't see them." James v Alvarez, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology and cancer biology at Duke University and co-author of the study, said: "they are too small to be shown in mammography or PET scans But by using a mouse model that replicates recurrent HER2 positive breast cancer, we were able to find and study the remaining cancer cells that survived the treatment Recurrent HER2 positive breast cancer afflicts about 20% of women Alvarez and his colleagues (including first author Andrea walens) found that these residual, hard to kill tumor cells did not grow and proliferate as rapidly as the original cancer cells Instead, they lurk and start to interact with the surrounding cells, especially those of the immune system Over time, they activate a group of small signaling proteins called cytokines, which are important ways for immune cells to communicate Due to the role of cytokines, immune cells will quickly reach the tumor site, and macrophages are the largest number of these immune response cells It is a kind of white blood cell, which can digest cell fragments and secrete and deposit a collagen, which is very important for the recovery and growth of dormant cancer cells 【2】 Cell: large-scale analysis of breast cancer cell composition brings new treatment methods doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.03.005 researchers from the University of Zurich and IBM research investigated the different components of cancer cells and immune cells in more than 100 breast tumors They found that aggressive tumors are usually controlled by a single type of tumor cell If some immune cells also exist, immunotherapy for a specific population of breast cancer patients may be successful Image source: cell researchers have found that previous assumptions that cancer cells are more diverse in cancer are false In most cases, the more aggressive tumors are controlled by a single type of tumor cell, which usually shows a high degree of mutation "The cell group Chengdu of each tumor we observed is unique, and the cell group Chengdu of each patient is different That's probably one of the reasons why we're so hard to treat breast cancer, "Wagner said At the same time, scientists have also found the similarity of tumor related immune system between malignant tumors In a group of breast cancer patients, they found a large number of inactive immune cells, which were successfully activated by immunotherapy, so as to fight against lung cancer and skin cancer This includes patients who were previously considered unsuitable for immunotherapy for breast cancer Therefore, the comprehensive analysis of tumor cells and immune cells can provide a good foundation for accurate medical treatment 【3】 Nutr res: unexpected! Eating walnuts can inhibit breast cancer! Doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2019.03.004 a new study from Marshall University shows that walnut intake is an important factor in inhibiting breast cancer growth and patient survival A Marshall University team led by W Elaine Hardman, Professor of biomedical science at Joan C Edwards School of medicine, Marshall University, found that eating two ounces of walnuts a day for about two weeks could significantly change the gene expression of breast cancer patients This pilot clinical trial is the latest in a series of Marshall University studies linking walnuts in the diet to the growth, survival and metastasis of breast cancer The study was published in the recently published journal of nutrition research "Eating walnuts slows down the growth of breast cancer and reduces the risk of breast cancer in mice," Hardman said On the basis of this study, our team speculated that eating walnuts would change gene expression in patients with pathologically confirmed breast cancer, thereby reducing the growth of breast cancer and improving survival rate " In this preliminary clinical trial, the researchers recruited patients with breast masses large enough for research and pathological biopsy, and randomly divided them into walnut eating group and control group After biopsies were collected, women in the walnut group started eating two ounces of walnuts a day until subsequent surgery Pathological studies confirmed that all women in the study had breast cancer About two weeks after the biopsy, the researchers collected additional samples from breast tissue during the operation The researchers compared the changes in gene expression in each woman The expression profile of RNA sequencing showed that the expression of 456 identified genes in the tumor changed significantly due to the consumption of walnut The analysis showed that the pathway promoting apoptosis and cell adhesion was activated, while the pathway promoting cell proliferation and migration was inhibited 【4】 Cancer cell: new imaging technology reveals the plasticity of breast cancer doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2019.02.010 Walter and researchers of Eliza Hall Institute of medicine have developed a new imaging technology, which can see the key steps of cancer cell evolution in tumor, which may reveal how breast cancer evades treatment Using a laboratory model of breast cancer, researchers were able to see tumors in three dimensions at a high resolution that had not been possible before This reveals how cancer cells develop from precancerous cells in the breast duct and how they change over time Source: cancer cell, a recent study published in the journal Cancer Cell, shows that breast cancer cells are essentially variable, changing from one cell type to another, similar to cells that are more easily diffused at the molecular level The transformation from normal breast cells to cancer cells has gone through many stages The "pre cancer" cells evolved into early cancer cells, and then the cancer cells may change, making the cells more likely to spread out from the tumor So far, it's impossible to see a single clone in the whole tumor - a "sister" cell derived from a single precancerous cell The new imaging technology allows the team to examine how often breast cancer cells develop into tumors and observe the behavior of tumor cells The study was led by Dr Anne Rios, Professor Jane visvader and Professor Geoff Lindeman from the Walter and Elizabeth hall institutes Professor visvader said: "using a new imaging technology, we found that only a small number of precancerous cells can develop into tumors On the contrary, once the tumor is formed, we find that its cells are likely to undergo so-called "epithelial mesenchymal transformation" (EMT) This is a change in the "molecular landscape" - genes in cells are turned on or off, transforming them from the "epithelial" form to the "mesenchymal" form, which has a growth advantage Our model shows that EMT is not a rare event, but an inherent feature of breast cancer cells " 【5】 Cancer prev res: be careful! Reuse of cooking oil will promote breast cancer metastasis doi: 10.1158/1940-6207.capr-18-0220 currently there are some reports about the relationship between reuse of frying oil and harmful health results, but there is little research on the impact of reuse of frying oil and breast cancer progress To this end, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, using mice models of advanced breast cancer and bioluminescence imaging technology in vivo, monitored the metastasis process of 4T1 tumor cells in animals fed with fresh soybean oil (SBO) and reused frying oil (tafo) The relevant research results were recently published in cancer Prevention research Compared with SBO intake, the number of metastatic lung tumors caused by tafo intake increased significantly In addition, the Ki-67 marker of lung metastasis cells proliferation increased 1.4 times in animals fed with tafo diet RNA sequencing analysis of liver tissue showed that diet induced the regulation of liver gene expression Researchers say that many cancer biologists are trying to understand what happened at the site of metastasis in order to prepare for tumor growth, and they are trying to reveal that breast cancer metastasis may not only be caused by some inherent biological mechanism, but also by lifestyle related factors If diet provides an opportunity to reduce the risk of breast cancer survivors, it can help them control their health 【6】 Nature: resistance to breast cancer may be related to a diet rich in leucine! Doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1126-2 now, a team of researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (bidmc) cancer center have found an unexpected relationship between leucine levels and the development of tamoxifen resistance in ER + breast cancer Under the leadership of Dr senthil K muthuswamy, the researchers further identified a key protein that can transfer leucine into cells and regulate the sensitivity of ER + breast cancer cells to tamoxifen The relevant research results were recently published in nature This study revealed a potential new strategy to overcome the endocrine drug resistance of ER + breast cancer patients "ER + breast cancer patients who develop drug-resistant and metastatic tumors have a very short survival, usually less than five years, because of their limited choice of treatment," said muthuswamy, director of cell biology programs and deputy director of transformation research at the BIDMC Cancer Institute "Our findings in the laboratory show that lowering leucine level can inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells, while increasing leucine level can enhance the proliferation of cancer cells." In addition, these findings provide evidence for the potential benefits of a low leucine diet Photo source: nature "because animal proteins contain more leucine than plant proteins, this study helps to find a dietary intervention strategy to help ER + breast cancer patients," muthuswamy said "Our study doesn't mean that animal protein promotes the growth of breast cancer cells - it's just that lowering leucine levels is good for patients diagnosed with ER + breast cancer." Surprisingly, scientists have also found that cells resistant to tamoxifen can still grow at low leucine levels Further studies have shown that slc7a5, a protein on the cell surface, is necessary to transport leucine into the cell