When estrogen isn’t the culprit
Although it sounds like a case of gender confusion on a molecular scale, the male hormone androgen spurs the growth of some breast tumors in women. In a new study, Harvard scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute provide the first details of the cancer cell machinery that carries out the hormone’s relentless growth orders. The study, to be published in the journal Cancer Cell on July 12, provides scientists with several inviting targets — cell proteins that snap into action in response to androgen — for future therapies. Drugs that block those proteins could slow or stifle tumor growth in many breast cancer patients who are not helped by standard hormone-blocking agents such as tamoxifen. “We identified a novel subtype of breast tumor which grows in response to androgen but not estrogen, and have uncovered the signaling pathways involved in its growth. And we’ve demonstrated that drugs capable of blocking these pathways, including...