Breast cancer cells hijack natural stress protectors

Turns out, a member of a protein family known for protecting our cells also protects cancer cells in aggressive, metastatic breast cancer.According to a new study conducted at the Augusta University, induction of heat shock protein 70, or HSP70, - which protects cells from stress - appeared to be a key difference between difficult-to-treat triple negative breast cancer and the more responsive estrogen-positive breast cancer."This aggressive breast cancer hijacks your normal protective physiological process to survive the toxic environment it has created," said researcher Hasan Korkaya.The finding illustrated at least one-way tumour necrosis factor alpha, or TNFa - which as its name implies can cause cancer cells to self-destruct - is manipulated by cancer to instead aid its survival.It also provides evidence that targeting HSP70 could be an effective strategy for some of the most aggressive breast cancers.The researchers have found that to aid cancer, TNFa first induces the protein ...