Private MD News

Researchers hope to improve understanding of cellular signalling in breast cancer

Category: Breast

A new “road map” explaining why cells decide to react and develop in certain ways currently being put together by scientists at Georgetown University and Virginia Tech University may help researchers in the future create improved treatments that may make positive breast cancer tests a thing of the past.

The researchers said that understanding messaging between cells could be an important step in working to end cancer. This process instructs certain cells to develop into cancerous growths. However, the model currently being constructed would explain the role that estrogen plays in this process.

It is known that the hormone is central in the progression of breast cancer. However, the exact function of estrogen is not completely understood. The team believes that their model could fully explain the role of estrogen in breast cancer, allowing scientists to develop drugs that attack this pathway.

"The value of this enterprise will be measured ultimately by new insights provided by the model into the logic and functionality of estrogen-receptor signaling and by the effectiveness of the model as a tool for experimental prediction and design," said John Tyson, one of the researchers involved in the project.