Breast Cancer

BRCA1/2-mutated tumor cells often survive treatment, whether it’s chemo- or radiotherapy, because they can repair therapy-induced DNA damage. A team led by Claus Scheidereit of the Max Delbrück Center has now reported in The EMBO Journal how blocking the TSG101 protein hinders these tumor cells from carrying out repair processes.

EMBO fellow Ilan Theurillat investigates how the most lethal subtype of breast cancer develops. He is driven by many unanswered questions such as: Why do fibroblasts wrap themselves around the triple negative tumor like a shield? Can such a tumor form from a single cancer cell?

Targeted treatment of basal-like breast cancer could be facilitated by YAP inhibitors in the future. As reported by an MDC team headed by Walter Birchmeier in the scientific journal "Cancer Research", this type of cancer requires the support of the YAP protein to stimulate the growth of cancer stem cells.

In recent years, researchers have gained ever more insight into the regulation of stem cells and their role in self-renewal and repair mechanisms. One important stem cell regulator discovered is now known as the Wnt signaling pathway.