New gene may predict effectiveness of breast cancer treatment

Scientists at the University of Auckland’s Liggins Institute are members of an international research team which has identified a new gene named SHON (secreted hominoid-specific oncogene) which plays an important role in the growth and progression of breast cancer. In addition, they have shown that SHON is only active in breast tumours that respond favourably to anti-estrogen therapy.

The study by Dr Dongxu Liu and others has been released online ahead of the print publication in the prestigious cancer research journal Cancer Research. The multinational collaboration involves scientists from New Zealand, China, Singapore and UK including leading British breast cancer experts Professor Ian Ellis and Dr Stephen Chan, Nottingham City Hospital.

Dr Liu analysed more than 2,000 samples from one of the world’s biggest breast cancer tissue banks, comparing the activity of SHON with how patients responded to anti-estrogen therapy. He says that this finding could form the basis of a prognostic test which would assist clinical specialists in determining the most effective treatment strategies for individual patients.

In 2012, some 3000 New Zealand women were diagnosed with breast cancer and more than 650 died from the disease. Around 75% of breast cancers are classified as Estrogen Receptor positive (ER+), meaning that their growth is stimulated by the hormone estrogen. The drugs most widely used to treat these cancers (such as tamoxifen), often called hormonal or anti-estrogen treatments, work by blocking the hormone’s growth promoting activity. Treatment over five years has been shown to effectively reduce patients’ risks of death from the disease by about a third.

However, despite the administration of anti-hormonal therapies such as tamoxifen, a significant proportion of ER+ patients relapse as their tumours seemingly develop resistance to these drugs. Having a test that identifies these patients would assist clinicians to institute treatments which are likely to be more effective at an earlier stage.

Dr Liu is currently working with several Auckland cancer clinical specialists to determine whether a simple test for the presence of the protein SHON in blood could be used to detect breast cancer at an early stage.

Media contact:
Pandora Carlyon, Communications Manager
Email: p.carlyon@auckland.ac.nz