Some mammary tumors are particularly insidious, are diagnosed at a late stage and are not yet treated with targeted therapies.
A study, recently published in “Nature Communications”, sheds some light on the origin, the points of weakness and the mechanisms through which these types of tumor keep changing.
The results achieved open new ground for applications in personalized medicine and help researchers understand if in the future it will be possible to predict the onset of metastases.
The research project focused on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a type of breast cancer that escapes diagnosis until it has already reached an advanced stage.
The team led by Alessio Zippo of Cibio - Centre for Integrative Biology of the University of Trento played a key role in the research work.
This study is the result of a scientific collaboration between the University of Trento, with Cibio (Laboratory of Chromatin Biology & Epigenetics), the University of Palermo, with DiBiMIS (Biomedical Department of Internal and Specialist Medicine), and Policlinico Maggiore in Milan. The research project, which was initiated by the National Institute of Molecular Genetics in Milan, was funded by the Italian Ministry of Health, Fondazione Cariplo and Associazione italiana per la ricerca sul cancro (Airc).
Authors:
Vittoria Poli, Luca Fagnocchi, Alessandra Fasciani, Alessandro Cherubini, Stefania Mazzoleni, Sara Ferrillo, Annarita Miluzio, Gabriella Gaudioso, Valentina Vaira, Alice Turdo, Miriam Giaggianesi, Aurora Chinnici, Elisa Lipari, Silvio Bicciato, Silvano Bosari, Matilde Todaro and Alessio Zippo.
The press release reports comments from Alessio Zippo, who is heading the project with colleague Matilde Todaro from the University of Palermo.