EAST LANSING, Mich., Nov. 26 (UPI) -- A drug used to treat type 2 diabetes is promising as a preventive drug for breast cancer or other cancers, U.S. and South Korean researchers say.
Using culture dishes, Trosko and colleagues grew miniature human breast tumors -- mammospheres -- that activated the stem cell gene Oct4A. Then the mammospheres were exposed to natural estrogen, a known growth factor and potential breast tumor promoter, and man-made chemicals that are known to promote tumors or disrupt the endocrine system.