SACRAMENTO, April 6 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists say they have identified a protein that might help breast cancer cells spread throughout the body, resisting anti-cancer drugs.
The University of California, Davis Cancer Center researchers said the protein -- Muc4 -- might be the essential ingredient that allows breast cancer to spread to other organs and resist therapeutic treatment. The scientists said they are among the first to characterize the role of Muc4 in the disease.
Muc4 is member of a group of proteins called mucins, which have a known role in protecting epithelial cells, from where breast cancer cells are derived. When separated from their surrounding cell matrix, epithelial cells tend to die. Metastasizing breast cancer cells, however, can survive this detachment.
"Our results lead us to believe that Muc4 is somehow disrupting normal links between epithelial cells," said graduate student Heather Workman, lead author of the study. "We now need to refine our understanding of this disruption process in order to find ways to interfere with it. There currently are no drugs that target Muc4, and this research will help change that."
The study, which also included Associate Professor Colleen Sweeney, is reported in the journal Cancer Research.
