New discovery could delay relapse in triple-negative breast cancer

Reviewed by Danielle Ellis, B.Sc.Oct 3 2023 This discovery opens up new possibilities for delaying relapse and is particularly relevant for aggressive triple-negative breast cancer , for which there are currently few effective treatments. The findings, published in the journal Drug Resistance Updates, could represent a step forward in the treatment of this type of cancer.

So-called "triple-negative breast cancer" is a particularly dangerous form of breast cancer. It is characterized by an early relapse and a poor survival rate. Until now, there have only been limited treatment options, and chemotherapy protocols are often not sufficiently effective. Therapy resistance, where cancer cells do not respond to conventional treatments, has long been a major problem.

Certain cancer cells evade chemotherapy by entering a dormant cell state. Such cancer cells can persist undetected for several months or even years before they start to proliferate again to give rise to tumor relapse. Although cytotoxic agents are less effective against nondividing cells, drug tolerant persister cells must come up with additional protective measures to cope with the toxic effects of chemotherapy.

P-gp has been well-known as a protein that can export chemotherapeutic drugs from the cells, but its role in protecting dormant cancer cells has not been proven. The discovery that P-gp contributes to the removal of toxic lipids from rare surviving cancer cells represents a vulnerability that can be exploited to prevent relapse. The good thing is that there are already drugs that can block this protein, so we were able to test our hypothesis.

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