Image Credit : http://www.mid-day.com/
A diet that starves cancer cells of an essential nutrient
may help improve outcomes of difficult to treat type of breast cancer, says a
study. "Our results suggest that a dietary intervention can increase the
effectiveness of a targeted cancer therapy," said the study's senior
author Vincent Cryns, professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin
School of Medicine and Public Health in the US.
Methionine is an essential amino acid abundant in meat,
fish, some legumes and nuts, but low in fruits and vegetables. Patients with
triple-negative breast cancer have limited treatment options because their
tumour cells lack the three receptors -- estrogen, progesterone and human
epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2) -- commonly targeted in hormone or
chemotherapy. The study was detailed in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
Scientists knew that methionine deficiency can block the growth of many types
of cancer, but the underlying mechanisms have puzzled researchers. "We
have shown that removing methionine can have a specific effect on a molecular
pathway that regulates cell death to increase the vulnerability of cancer cells
to treatments that target this pathway," Cryns said. Specifically, the
researchers showed that when triple-negative breast cancer cells were deprived
of methionine, the stressed cancer cells responded by increasing the amount of
a receptor on the cell's surface called TRAIL-R2. This resulted in the breast
cancer cells becoming very sensitive to an antibody that binds to TRAIL-R2 on
the surface of the cancer cells and triggers them to die. The study lays the
foundation for a clinical trial to see if a low-methionine diet will help
improve outcomes in women with "triple-negative" breast cancer.
Article Credit : http://www.mid-day.com/
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