A breast cancer recurrence prevention strategy targets dormant tumor cells trapped in the bone marrow

strategy to prevent breast cancer recurrence after treatment                                

Scientists develop a promising strategy to prevent breast cancer recurrence after treatment

Doctors say that a significant percentage of breast cancer cases recur years after removal and treatment, and the disease kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide annually.

A report published by the specialized scientific website "Science Alert" stated that approximately 30 percent of successfully treated breast cancer cases suffer from a recurrence of the tumors later, resulting in the death of 685,000 women worldwide annually. However, specialized researchers have developed a new strategy that they believe could prevent the disease from recurring in cured patients.

A study conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania has shown that actively targeting dormant tumor cells (DTCs) trapped in the bone marrow and other parts of the body can keep cured patients cancer-free. Currently, patients treated for breast cancer are closely monitored to see if the tumor will return. However, the new strategy does not involve waiting and watching, but rather uses drugs to attack the root causes of relapse.

"Right now, we don't know when or if a patient's cancer will return. That's the problem we're trying to solve," says Angela DiMichele, a medical oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania. The study shows that preventing recurrence by monitoring and targeting dormant cancer cells is a promising strategy and will hopefully spur further research in this area.

These dormant cells have only been confirmed as potential targets for treatment in the past few years. Other recent studies have identified pathways and drugs that can be used to reach dormant cancer cells, leading researchers to use hydroxychloroquine (which treats autoimmune diseases), everolimus (an existing anticancer drug), or both to target them. The results of a series of tests conducted on 51 people with previously diagnosed breast cancer who had confirmed dormant cancer cells were intriguing.

Individually, each drug successfully eliminated up to 80 percent of dormant cancer cells, but the combination treatment was even more effective, eliminating 87 percent of dormant cells. In the group that took both hydroxychloroquine and everolimus, all participants remained cancer-free after three years. For those who took either drug alone, the survival rate remained significant, ranging from 92 to 93 percent.

"It's surprising that we found that some drugs that don't work against actively growing cancers can be very effective against these dormant cells," says Louis Chodosh, a cancer biologist at the University of Pennsylvania. "This shows us that the biology of dormant tumor cells is very different from that of active cancer cells." It's worth noting that these direct cancer cells are not found in the bodies of all breast cancer survivors, but for those who do have them, the early results of this treatment are promising.