Stopping the spread of breast cancer

The primary cause of death from breast cancer is the spread of tumor cells from the breast to other organs in the body. Northwestern Medicine® scientists have discovered a new pathway that can stop breast cancer cells from spreading.

Working with human breast cancer cells and mouse models of breast cancer, scientists identified a new protein that plays a key role in reprogramming cancer cells to migrate and invade other organs. When that protein is removed from cancer cells in mice, the ability of the cells to metastasize to the lung is dramatically decreased.

The protein, hnRNPM, helps launch a cascade of events that enables breast cancer cells to break away from the original tumor, penetrate the blood stream, invade another part of the body and form a new nodule of that tumor.

“Our research suggests that hnRNPM could be an effective target to stop cancer cells from spreading,” said…