Researchers Investigate New Effective Treatment Against Recurrent Breast Cancers

July 30, 2018

What does one in five breast cancer have in common? Large amounts of a protein called HER2 (or human epidermal growth factor 2 receptor).

"Every healthy cell produces a normal amount of HER2, but HER2 is produced 10 to 20 times more in a cancer cell," said Yehenew Agazie, an associate professor of biochemistry at the university's medical school. University of West Virginia

Agazie is studying an alternative treatment for HER2-positive breast cancers, which tend to grow and spread particularly rapidly. The National Cancer Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health, has granted $ 1.6 million over five years to study the effectiveness of treatment in preclinical models.

In addition to Agazie, the research team includes

• Yon Rojanasakul, Pharmaceutical Science Professor at the Pharmacy School WVU
• Sijin Wen, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at the University of WVU School of Public Health
• Paul Lockman, Assistant Vice President of Experimental Therapies at WVU Health Sciences Center and Assistant Director of Translational Research for WVU Cancer Institute

"There are different types of drugs, including Herceptin , which are anti-HER2, but the treatments show that patients can still develop resistance against these drugs, "he said. "A very important aspect is that all these anti-HER2 drugs target the HER2 protein already expressed without impacting the expression process."

The compound at the center of the new study of Agazie is different. Instead of inactivating HER2 in cells, this prevents cells from producing too much HER2 to begin with. An analogy is to cook dinner in a large pot to cut dirty dishes, instead of using all the pots in the kitchen and wash them all.

In 2017, Agazie and her former PhD student Zachary Hartmann received a patent for compound, which has shown promise to prevent recurrence of breast cancer in previous laboratory studies.

Agazie and her research team will now determine to what extent the compound prevents carcinogenic genes from expressing, prevents normal cells from becoming cancerous and forms, stops cancer cells from invading healthy tissue and surrounding. The group will also determine which dose of the compound maximizes its effectiveness and minimizes its toxicity.

Another benefit of the compound is that it works even if a tumor has become resistant to other drugs that target HER2-positive cancers. What's more, the compound is effective against breast cancer that has spread to the brain, a common place for breast cancer invasion. The treatment of tumors in the brain is particularly frustrating because the blood-brain barrier often prevents therapeutic drugs from reaching them

"Treating brain metastases is a difficult climb, it's one of the main barriers to cancer treatment. I said. "If this new drug molecule is successful, this experimental treatment could improve the treatment of brain tumors in women with breast cancer."