Cancer Issues
New Focus On Women With Triple Negative Cancers
By
Aug 30, 2010 - 6:27:22 PM

Research Heats up For Cancer Putting Young, Minority Women at Risk

(HealthNewsDigest.com) - Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James) are launching two new clinical trials taking aim at “triple negative” breast cancer, an aggressive, treatment-resistant form of the disease that disproportionately affects young, African American women.

Triple negative cases account for approximately 15 percent of all breast cancers**. It’s usually diagnosed before age 50 and besides African Americans, Hispanic women are also at higher risk. Women are diagnosed with “triple negative” breast cancer when their tumors lack three hormone receptors doctors normally target with treatment to kill breast cancer: the estrogen receptor, the progesterone receptor and the HER-2 receptor.

Consequently, treatments for other forms of breast cancer are not effective for triple negative cases, and women who develop the disease generally have a poor prognosis.

“Although triple negative tumors are responsive to chemotherapy, they recur early and after recurrence, it’s very difficult to treat those with existing therapeutics,” says Dr. Charles Shapiro, director of breast medical oncology at the OSUCCC-James. Dr. Shapiro is leading Ohio State’s efforts to develop new drugs for triple negative breast cancer through two separate clinical trials, funded by the National Cancer Institute.

“We’re engaged in a coordinated effort in the clinic and in the laboratories, of developing novel therapeutics, or new drugs, for triple negative cancers,” says Dr. Shapiro.

One trial focuses on a promising area involving what are known as “PARP” inhibitors. PARP, which stands for poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase, is an enzyme that keeps cancer cells from rebuilding after treatment.

“When cells get injured, there is process of repairing the DNA. And triple negative breast cancers are particularly susceptible to agents that interfere with that process,” says Dr. Shapiro.

In other words, for some reason in triple negative cases, a woman’s DNA will repair a damaged cancer cell allowing it to survive, but PARP inhibitors short circuit that process.

The second trial uses agents called gamma secretase inhibitors to control stem cells in the breast through what’s known as the Notch Pathway approach.

This kind of innovation impresses Dr. Kim Bates not only as a physician, but more importantly as a triple negative breast cancer survivor.

Kim, 36, who is African American, has survived two bouts of triple negative breast cancer and recently tested positive for the BRCA-1 gene mutation, leading her to take drastic steps to control it.

“In 2009 I had a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, then later a total hysterectomy,” Kim says.

That may seem aggressive, but as a physician, Kim knew what she was facing, and she’s happy to hear that breast cancer experts continue to investigate new treatments for this specific type of the disease.

“It’s really important for me that studies looking at triple negative breast cancer are happening,” Kim says. “Triple negative patients are so much different than the rest of beast cancer patients and things that have worked in the past might not work now. We’ve got to think outside the box.”

References:
*Survival rates for breast cancer, American Cancer Society, retrieved August 2010 from:
http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/BreastCancer/OverviewGuide/breast-cancer-overview-surviv al-rates
**Triple Negative Breast Cancer, Breastcancer.Org - retrieved August 2010 from: http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/diagnosis/trip_neg/behavior.jsp

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