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Scots scientists make breast cancer discovery that could stop disease spreading

Scots scientists make breast cancer discovery that could stop disease spreading

Daily Record5 days ago
The discovery could offer patients a vital new window for cancer intervention.
A team of Scots scientists have made a groundbreaking new discovery which could help stop the spread of breast cancer - one of the leading causes of death from the disease.

Under the research, conducted by experts at the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute and the University of Glasgow, patients could be offered a vital new window for intervention. The study focused on how breast cancer changes the immune system so it can't tackle cancer cells as they begin to spread.

The researchers found that cancer changes the metabolism (the way cells make and use energy) of specific immune cells resulting in them releasing a prominent metabolite called uracil. Uracil is a molecule key to essential processes in the body which was found to help distant organs build a 'scaffold' to grow secondary tumours elsewhere in the body.

By blocking an enzyme called uridine phosphorylase-1 (UPP1), which produces uracil, the scientists were able to stop this scaffold forming in mice and restore the ability of the immune system to kill secondary cancer cells to prevent metastasis.
It opens the door to new potentially powerful new tools to tackle cancer - detecting uracil in the blood could help spot early signs of cancer spread then blocking UPP1 with drugs could stop the spread before it starts.

The study was conducted in the labs of Professor Jim Norman and Professor Karen Blyth at the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute and the University of Glasgow.
Study lead Dr Cassie Clarke, of the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute and University of Glasgow, said: "This study represents a major shift in how we think about preventing the spread of breast cancer. By targeting these metabolic changes as early as possible we could stop the cancer progressing and save lives.'
Every year, around 56,800 people are diagnosed with breast cancer in United Kingdom. Around 11,300 people sadly lose their lives to the disease.

Thanks to research, breast cancer has become a far more treatable disease, but once it spreads to other areas within the body it becomes harder to control effectively.
Understanding how and why breast cancer spreads is key to preventing the disease becoming unmanageable with current therapies.

Cancer Research UK's Director of Research, Dr Catherine Elliott, said: ' Discoveries in cancer research have made huge strides in making breast cancer a far more treatable disease than ever before.
'However, metastasis - when cancer spreads - is a major factor in breast cancer becoming harder to treat especially if the cancer returns months or even many years later.
'This discovery gives us new hope for detecting and stopping metastasis early and ensuring people have many more years with their families and loved ones.'

Simon Vincent, chief scientific officer at Breast Cancer Now, said: 'This is an exciting piece of joint research that expands our understanding of how secondary breast cancer develops.
'The researchers discovered that high levels of a protein called UPP1 may make some cancers, including breast cancer, more likely to spread to other parts of the body, where the disease becomes incurable.
'In mice, targeting the UPP1 protein before secondary breast cancer developed led to fewer secondary breast tumours and a boosted immune response in the lungs.
'Now we need more research to see if this new insight can be turned into new drugs that stop secondary breast cancer, and potentially other secondary cancers, in their tracks. With around 61,000 people living with secondary breast cancer in the UK, research like this is vital."
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