Research at Leeds University in Great Britain has found that protein loss of MCPH1 cancer cells was linked to a high number of deaths from women who undergo surgery and chemotherapy to kill cancer cells but die early due to being resistant to treatment.
DNA repair from the damage experienced as a result of treatment is repaired in part to protein as well as influencing two key genes, which have some link to an increased risk of cancers.
Statistically, the scientists found 29% of 319 breast cancer suffers and 19% of 47 ovarian cancer suffers who were treated were deficient in the protein. This was particularly acute with women who had fast spreading ovarian cancer and those who were resistant to chemotherapy.
Sandra Bell, of the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, said: “This is an exciting discovery. We have found that the reduced levels of MCPH1 in these breast and ovarian cancer patients are associated with increasing tumour grade and poor survival.
“Yorkshire Cancer Research is now funding the use of a new technology to rapidly identify molecules which selectively kill cancer cells which have lost the MCPH1 protein but do not kill cells which contain it,
“The identification of these molecules should allow new chemotherapy drugs to be developed that are tailored for women with breast and ovarian cancers who are dying earlier than expected because they are resistant to current chemotherapies.”
