New Delhi: Scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign said on Wednesday (January 22) that there is hope for a groundbreaking single-dose treatment for breast cancer after a single dose of a synthetic molecule has eliminated small breast tumours and significantly shrunk large tumours in mice.
The synthetic molecule, titled ErSO-TFPy, has been developed by researchers at the University of Illinois and induces regression of tumours in multiple mouse models of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer with a single dose, reported The Telegraph.
“It is very rare for a compound to shrink tumours in mouse models of breast cancer, let alone completely eradicate those tumours with a single dose,” Paul Hergenrother, a professor of chemistry at the UIUC who led the study, said in a media release.
At present, patients with estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer have to undergo surgery which is followed by five to 10 years of treatment with adjuvant hormone therapy. The patients quality of life is at the risk of being impacted with the effects of the hormone therapy, that can result into conditions such as enhanced risks of blood clots, musculoskeletal pain, sexual dysfunction and fatigue.
Estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer makes up roughly 70 per cent of breast cancers.
“An anti-cancer regimen that consists of a single dose or a handful of doses could change the face of breast cancer treatment,” Hergenrother and his colleagues have said in a research paper about their work.
