Cancer researchers find new clues in breast stem cells

Scientists and physicians at the Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute recently found new clues that could help them figure out why drugs that target mutations in breast tumors won’t be effective in stamping out cancer in some patients.

SuEllen Pommier, Ph.D., is an associate research professor at the Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute

The study, published a study in the Annals of Surgical Oncology, sheds light on mutations found in stem cells that could be causing some breast cancers to develop and may be the reason the disease recurs. These abnormal cells are likely controlling cell functions in the tumor and, given they are not targeted by chemotherapy and radiation, they enable the disease to recur.

The stem cell mutations were discovered in breast cancer cells removed during surgery.

“By studying normal and malignant cells that were collected from breast tissues removed during surgery, we were able to look at what is occurring in the body,” said SuEllen J. Pommier, Ph.D., the lead author of the study, which was funded primarily by the Avon Foundation for Women.

Working with samples taken directly from surgeries made the findings in this study possible, Pommier added, because the biology of breast stem cells could be compared with their malignant counterparts in a way that hadn’t been done before. The cultured cell lines used in most studies can’t provide accurate information about normal breast stem cells.