A study by scientists from the University of Texas (UT) Medical Center suggests there is a strong link between triple-negative breast cancer – the most aggressive type of breast cancer – and beclin 1, an autophagy gene that regulates the body's natural cellular recycling process.
The researchers analysed 3,057 breast cancer cases for levels of expression of beclin 1 and BRCA1, a nearby gene that is associated with inherited breast cancer, using data from two large databases: The US-based Cancer Genome Project (1,067 cases) and the Molecular Taxonomy of Breast Cancer International Symposium in the UK and Canada (1,992 cases).
The researchers found that reduced activity of beclin 1 was strongly linked to a higher incidence of triple-negative breast cancer and a poorer prognosis for breast cancer patients. Levels of expression of BRCA1 were not found to be a significant factor.
"We have potentially identified a new pathway to be targeted in the most aggressive, difficult-to-treat form of breast cancer," said Dr Beth Levine, director of the Center for Autophagy Research, and co-senior author of the study with Dr. Yang Xie, associate professor of clinical science. "These data suggest that decreased beclin 1 activity contributes to breast cancer and poor survival outcomes. As a result, therapies that increase beclin 1 activity in breast cancer may be beneficial."
Published in EBioMedicine, the study is the first to outline a correlation between beclin 1 and triple-negative human breast cancer, and could pave the way for new treatment methods.
