Monitoring for early signs of treatment resistance in breast cancer
Background
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in Australian women and the second most common cancer to cause death, after lung cancer. The most common type of breast cancer is hormone receptor-positive – this means the cancer’s growth is fuelled by hormones (estrogen, progesterone, or both). Currently, once breast cancer has spread, there is no curative treatment available. A new class of drugs – called CDK4/6 inhibitors – have improved the survival rate for women with metastatic hormone receptor-positive breast cancer by several months, but almost always the treatment eventually fails as tumour develops resistance to drug. Early identification of tumour resistance is therefore critical to enable alternative treatment paths to be explored.
The research
CDK4/6 inhibitors target proteins that control how quickly cells grow and divide. In breast cancer, these proteins can become overactive and cause the cells to grow and divide uncontrollably. In this project, A/Professor Wang and her team will develop a new biomedical device that will allow them to analyse tiny particles involved in cell-to-cell communication in blood. This technology will enable them to study how hormone receptor-positive breast cancer becomes resistant to CDK4/6 inhibitors. With this knowledge, the team will then develop a test to monitor treatment response and watch for the early signs of treatment failure.
The impact
Identifying when treatment is failing early enables clinicians to offer alternative treatment approaches – such as enrolment in a clinical trial – before the cancer progresses further. For patients with metastatic hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, A/Professor Wang’s new test will be an important tool to track and monitor the effectiveness of treatment with CDK4/6 inhibitors. In studying how treatment resistance occurs, the team may also identify new drug targets to help extend the effectiveness of current treatments.