New study conducted by scientists reveals poorer outcomes for African-American women with estrogen-receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer, compared with European-American patients, appears to be due, in part, to a strong survival mechanism within the cancer cells. The study is being presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2015.
If UPR is activated due to stress within a cancer cell from anti-cancer treatment, "it can switch on a pro-survival pathway, allowing tumor cells to hunker down and wait out the attack," says the study's lead investigator, Ayesha Shajahan-Haq, PhD, an oncology research assistant professor.
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"From our gene analyses, we found increased activation of the UPR pro-survival pathway in African-American patients, compared with other patients, along with increased activity of a number of genes associated with that pathway," says Shajahan-Haq. "This can lead to increased resistance to common therapies."
About 70 percent of all breast cancers are ER+, which means they depend on estrogen to grow. In many of these cancers, treatment involves preventing estrogen from reaching the cancer cell. However, about 50 percent of treated tumors develop treatment resistance. African-American women with this breast cancer subtype, treated the same way as European-American women, have worse progression-free and overall survival -- for reasons that have not been understood.
![Quiz on Breast Cancer]( "Quiz on Breast Cancer")
Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths among women. It is often said that a woman who breast-feeds is at a lower risk of developing cancer compared to another who does not .Are these mere old wives tales or is there some truth in it? This quiz on breast cancer has all the details.
"Our findings offer a partial understanding of racial differences within ER+ breast cancers," Shajahan-Haq says. "We demonstrate both increased resistance to anti-cancer therapy in African-American patients as well as the reason that resistance occurs."
She adds, "Biology may not be the only factor contributing to the racial disparities in outcome in the general public. Factors such as access to mammography, follow-up care or treatment, income status and other social factors have also been shown to contribute to disparities in outcome."
Still, in terms of treatment, strategies that target this critical pro-survival UPR pathway could reduce treatment resistance, offering more effective therapy for African-American women with ER+ breast cancer, Shajahan-Haq says.
Source: Eurekalert
Quiz on Breast Cancer
Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths among women. It is often said that a woman who breast-feeds is at a lower risk of developing cancer compared to another who does not .Are these mere old wives tales or is there some truth in it? This quiz on breast cancer has all the details.
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"Our findings offer a partial understanding of racial differences within ER+ breast cancers," Shajahan-Haq says. "We demonstrate both increased resistance to anti-cancer therapy in African-American patients as well as the reason that resistance occurs."
She adds, "Biology may not be the only factor contributing to the racial disparities in outcome in the general public. Factors such as access to mammography, follow-up care or treatment, income status and other social factors have also been shown to contribute to disparities in outcome."
Still, in terms of treatment, strategies that target this critical pro-survival UPR pathway could reduce treatment resistance, offering more effective therapy for African-American women with ER+ breast cancer, Shajahan-Haq says.
Source: Eurekalert
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The method has been tested and validated only for a single population and needs to be validated more widely before it can be used practically.
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