On the trail of breast cancer's spread to bones

Researchers have identified genes in mice that appear to be important in the spread of breast cancer to bones.

Bone disease develops in 70% of breast cancer patients who are left untreated, or for whom treatment fails.

Peter Callum Cancer Institute PhD student, Erica Sloan, said her research aimed to identify the genes that allow a breast tumour cell to spread to bone.

Using mice, Ms Sloan and her colleagues developed a new and unique model of breast cancer that closely mimics the human disease. Then they used a technology called DNA microarrays to simultaneously compare 1000s of genes at the same time.

"We found several interesting gene changes, but two particular genes appear to be important in the spread of breast cancer to the bone. One controls attachment of the tumour cells to normal cells such as those in the bone marrow. The other gene regulates cell growth and may prevent the tumour cell growing in the bones".

The research is looking to understand how the genes are involved in the spread of human breast cancer. When this is understood, it will be possible to develop drugs that specifically target these genes to prevent the spread of breast cancer, and possible other cancers.