Breast Cancer Chemo Controller Found

U.S. medical scientists say they have identified a protein that regulates the effectiveness of Taxol chemotherapy in breast cancer patients.

Cancer researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center say their laboratory finding advances research into why a widely used chemotherapy drug works in patients with breast cancer.

The scientists isolated the protein caveolin-1, showing that in breast cancer cells this protein can enhance cell death in response to the use of Taxol, one of two taxane chemotherapy drugs used to treat advanced breast and ovarian cancer.

But, in order to work, they found the protein needs to be switched on, or phosphorylated. Their finding suggests it might be possible to test individual breast cancer patients for the status of such molecular markers as caveolin-1 in their tumors to determine the efficacy-to-toxicity ratio for Taxol.

The study is reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.