Chinese scientists recently identified a stem cell that could lead to important treatments for the type of breast cancer that to date have no targeted treatment.

Breast cancer is the leading form of cancer among women in China, where like most of the world, tumors are normally treated with hormone inhibitory therapy and growth factor inhibitory medicines to suppress tumor progression.

Clinically, 20 percent of all breast cancer patients are not responsive to current treatments. Most often, their tumors do not express the corresponding receptor genes necessary for current treatments to work.

However, researchers at the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have discovered new populations of multipotent stem cells in the mammary glands that not only behave similarly to cancer cells, but may hold the key to new treatments.

Their study, published in the Journal Nature on Sunday, revealed the stem cells also express Protein C receptor at their surface that may be possible targets for medicines.  

“Stem cells exist in many adult organs, but breast stem cells could be an important origin for tumors. Breast cancer for which there is no targeted treatment could originate in these stem cells,” explained Zeng Yi, head of the research team at Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology.

“So the Protein C receptor found in our research may lead to the development of new drugs to help women who have forms of breast cancer that are difficult to treat.”

Zeng’s team is currently developing new diagnostic strategies to identify the many different forms of breast cancer. Working in cooperation with Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, they will continue to develop new treatments and preventative strategies for breast cancer.