New Research Targets Drug-Resistant Breast Cancer

New Research Targets Drug-Resistant Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer Cure is proud to announce the funding of two new research projects as part of The Breast Cancer Research in New Zealand 2016 initiative, a joint partnership between Breast Cancer Cure, the Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) and The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation.

The first project led by Dr Francis Hunter from the University of Auckland , will see New Zealand researchers use cutting-edge genetic technology to help control resistance to the latest drug for treating HER2-positive breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body (metastatic breast cancer).

Each year more than 3000 New Zealanders are diagnosed with breast cancer and 600 will die from the condition. One-quarter of these breast cancers are driven by increased amounts of a gene called HER2, which can be targeted with the drug trastuzumab, more commonly known as Herceptin.

“Herceptin markedly improves outcomes for HER2-positive breast cancer. Unfortunately, treatment resistance develops in many patients, leading to a very aggressive disease with poor prognosis,” says Dr Hunter.

In 2013 a new drug called trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) was approved for treating HER2-positive, metastatic1 breast cancer that has stopped responding to Herceptin. However, T-DM1 shrinks tumours in only half of patients and the reasons why the other patients are resistant to it remains unclear.

“We’re going to use a powerful genetic tool to identify genes that control – and thus predict – the sensitivity and resistance to T-DM1 in HER2-positive breast cancer. Our aim is to reduce the distressing uncertainty associated with treating this illness and to enable patients and their caregivers to make informed treatment decisions,” says Dr Hunter.

Phillipa Green, General Manager for Breast Cancer Cure comments, “We are proud to be able to announce the funding of another vital research project, to help us move closer to achieving our goal of finding a cure for breast cancer. The work that Dr Hunter is doing is ground breaking, and will drastically change the lives and treatment journey of many people in New Zealand who suffer from Breast Cancer.”

“This new project takes us to a total of nine projects funded via the breast cancer partnership with the Health Research Council of New Zealand since 2013.”

HRC Chief Executive Professor Kath McPherson says recurrent HER2-positive breast cancer is a major challenge in New Zealand, particularly as this type of breast cancer grows rapidly and is associated with a high risk of metastasis and relapse, with devastating impacts for the women concerned and their family/whānau.

“Developing a diagnostic tool that can predict how patients will likely respond to the drug T-DM1 – and advancing our understanding of why some people are resistant to it – would help improve the chances of survival for people with this aggressive type of breast cancer and allow more targeted and efficient use of expensive cancer medicines,” says Professor McPherson.

Cancer researcher Dr Tracy Hale from Massey University has also received funding as part of the Breast Cancer Research in New Zealand 2016 initiative.

Dr Hale is exploring how the changes that occur in a cell’s nucleus when a cell invades surrounding tissue could reveal potential new drugs targets for metastatic breast cancer.

“The first step in metastatic disease occurs when a cell invades surrounding tissue. However, before a cell can invade, its nucleus must become malleable enough to ensure the cell can squeeze through the tissue matrix. This critical stage provides a unique opportunity to prevent metastasis by targeting the key pathways involved,” says Dr Hale.

The research team will study if a protein commonly lost in invasive breast tumours, called HP1a, is responsible for these changes to the cell’s nucleus. Understanding how this process works will help identify possible drug targets that could represent the next generation of anti-cancer therapies.

The Breast Cancer Research in New Zealand 2016 initiative was established by the three funding partners to support innovative research that seeks to improve and ultimately ensure survival from breast cancer, with a focus on targeted treatments, early detection, prognostic and predictive diagnoses, or preventative therapies.

BCC has funded over $10M of research in New Zealand over 15 years ranging from studies into the use of antibodies as a targeted treatment for controlling growth of breast cancer cells, to early detection of breast cancer, to research in the field of immunotherapy and the harnessing of our own immune systems to combat breast cancer.

1 The spread of secondary tumours to other tissues

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