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A certain type of white blood cell promotes the formation of metastases in breast cancer. Swiss researchers have discovered this. According to the University of Freiburg, this discovery could be important for the development of new treatments.
Although early detection and modern treatments offer most breast cancer patients a good chance of recovery, about one in four of those affected develop metastases, the University of Freiburg (Unifr) wrote in a statement on Monday. Metastatic cancer stem cells have the ability to detach from the original tumor and spread to other parts of the body, promoting the spread of the cancer and making treatment more difficult.
Granulocytes facilitate the formation of metastases
The development of metastases is promoted by inflammation in the tumor and its surroundings. The research team led by Curzio Rüegg from Unifr has now identified a new mechanism that links this inflammation to the development of metastases. So-called granulocytes, a type of white blood cells that play an important defensive role in acute inflammation, facilitate the formation of metastases, as the researchers showed in a study published in “The Journal of Clinical Investigation”.
“In a certain way, the cancer cells cause the granulocytes at the tumor site to produce inflammatory mediators, interleukin 6 and oncostatin,” Rüegg explains in the statement. In a second step, these two mediators then transform the breast cancer cells into a particularly aggressive form, known as highly metastatic cancer stem cells.
New treatments possible
In the study, the researchers showed in the laboratory that inhibiting these two mediators suppresses the formation of cancer stem cells and metastases.
This work opens up real opportunities for the development of new treatments for patients at high risk of metastases, the university wrote in the statement. Interleukin-6 inhibitors are already available and used to treat patients with chronic inflammatory diseases. (SDA)
Source:Blick
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