Posted on October 20, 2012, Saturday

ADELAIDE: Young University of Adelaide researcher Natasha McInnes is working on a gene that fights breast cancer and helps keep cells healthy.

She has worked out how the gene can be turned off. Now she has to find a way to turn it back on, the Herald Sun reported.

The research promises to restore the breast cancer cells, turn them back into healthy cells or cause them to die (before they multiply and spread).

While the prospect of a new type of treatment still is a fair while down the track, McInnes said the results to date were quite exciting.

A lot of the drugs that are currently available do target the bad genes, so they basically switch things off, whereas this would be the other way around where were trying to switch a gene on, she said.

The gene, FOXP3, is found in normal breast cells, but is less active, mutated or lost in breast cancer cells.

McInnes uncovered how the good gene FOXP3 regulates a bad gene, called SATB1, which promotes metastasis the spread of cancer cells to other parts of the body.

Its very interesting to look at what is actually controlling those genes and what happens when a normal cell turns into a breast cancer cell, because obviously those good genes are getting switched off, she said.

If we can track whats happening in those early stages, it really gives us a better understanding of why breast cancer develops.

Here is the original post:
Gene research may help fight breast cancer

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