Historic step for the prevention of breast cancer (1)
New guidelines for the care of people with a family history of breast cancer have been released by NICE. The guidelines, on which Breakthrough staff worked closely with NICE for almost 2 years, represent a historic step for the prevention of breast cancer, recommending that women at high risk of developing the disease are offered risk-reducing drug treatment.
Historic step for the prevention of breast cancer (2)
As NICE guidelines do not cover Scotland, there was concern that women living north of the border would miss out on NICE’s new breast cancer prevention initiative. However, by working closely with the Scottish Government, we have ensured that Scottish
clinicians will also be able to offer tamoxifen to women with a family history of breast cancer.
Research reveals new drug target
A team led by Breakthrough’s Dr Nicholas Turner have discovered that the growth of certain breast cancers may be due to hyperactivity of a gene called GNAS. Blocking this gene was found to prevent the growth of breast cancer cells in the lab, suggesting that developing new drugs based on this approach may become useful in treating breast cancer patients in the future.
New drug’s AD-ed effect
Breakthrough’s Rob Clarke helped to demonstrate that a new drug entering clinical trials — called AD-01 — inhibits the growth of a type of cell called cancer stem cells. These cells are heavily implicated in resistance to treatment and recurrence so this finding
justifies optimism for AD-01’s development.