breast cancer breakthrough

Scientists searching for the source of aggressive and deadly breast cancers may have been looking in the wrong place, new research suggests.
By The Newsroom
Published 2nd Sep 2010, 16:09 BST
Updated 2nd Sep 2010, 17:20 BST

The findings shed light on how the most dangerous breast cancers grow.

Tumours arise in two types of glandular tissue in the breast, the outer “basal” cells and inner “luminal” cells.

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Previously it was thought that more aggressive cancers sprung from basal stem cells. Milder forms of cancer were believed to arise from “intermediate” luminal cells.

The vast majority of inherited breast tumours with defective BRCA1 genes have basal-like characteristics.

But scientists who conducted studies on mice to confirm the origin of BRCA1 cancer tumours found that looks can be deceptive. They deleted the BRCA1 gene in both mouse basal stem cells and luminal intermediate cells.

Tumours formed in both kinds of cell, but only luminal cells had features identical to human BRCA1 cancers.

The work is reported in the journal Cell Stem Cell.