In early-stage research, led by scientists from Imperial College London and The Institute of Cancer Research, London, researchers have identified a genetic “switch” in breast cancer cells that boosts the production of a type of internal scaffolding. This scaffolding is made of a protein called keratin-80 that is related to the keratin protein that helps keep hair strong. Boosting the amount of this scaffolding makes the cancer cells more rigid, which the researchers say may help the cells clump together and travel in the blood stream to other parts of the body. The researchers studied human breast cancer cells treated with a common types of breast cancer drug called aromatase inhibitors. The team found the same switch is involved in breast cancer cells becoming resistant to the medication (meaning the drugs are no longer effective if the cancer returns). Targeting this switch with a different drug could help reverse this resistance, and make the cancer less likely to spread, explained Dr. Luca Magnani, lead author of the research from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial: "Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, and causes 55,200 new cases every year. Aromatase inhibitors are effective at killing cancer cells, but within a decade post-surgery around 30 per cent of patients will relapse and see their cancer return - usually because the cancer cells have adapted to the drug. Even worse, when the cancer comes back it has usually spread around the body - which is difficult to treat." The results of this new work were published online on May 9, 2019 in Nature Communications. The open-access article is titled “SREBP1 Drives Keratin-80-Dependent Cytoskeletal Changes and Invasive Behavior in Endocrine-Resistant ERα Breast Cancer.”Login Or Register To Read Full Story