Breast cancer is a severe illness that is treated through various methods. The treatments include chemotherapy, hormone therapy, surgery, or radiation. However, the disease can be fatal, and triple-negative breast cancer is among the most aggressive types of the disease. The condition is determined if the patient has tested negative for the hormones estrogen, progesterone, and HER2. Treatments are often effective, but recurrence is common. Moreover, treatments that work for other types of cancer are ineffective for triple-negative breast cancer.

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Discussing strategy with your physician is vital — to surpass those crucial first five years and successfully kill the cancer cells. Breast cancer is a worldwide problem that mostly affects women. Medical researchers are dedicating their study to finding another method to treat breast cancer. Recent research focused on a treatment that can stop triple-negative breast cancer recurrence and metastasis. A research team from the Experimental and Clinical Research Institute of UCLouvain conducted the study.

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With the help of sponsorship from UCLouvain, the team was able to execute the study beginning in 2014. Researchers included Pierre Sonveaux and a postdoctoral student, Tania Capeloa. The drug they formulated was called MitoQ and was said to prevent the occurrence of metastases in 80% of cases and local relapse in 75% of cases. The investigation involved mice with human breast cancer, and researchers exposed them to MitoQ combined with various chemotherapies. During the trial, the team observed that the drug adapts to chemotherapies and hinders relapses as well as metastases in mice. Its efficacy results from the drug’s ability to stop the activation of stagnant cancer cells. With the MitoQ molecule, triple-negative breast cancer can be treated without worrying about its reoccurrence after just a few years.

Due to the results, researchers moved forward with the initial clinical phase by testing the drug on healthy patients. Additional information was discovered, such as the fact that MitoQ is not toxic and the present side effects are only nausea and vomiting. "Achieving blocking metastases, we expected it. On the other hand, avoiding cancer recurrence was totally unexpected. When we get this kind of result, it motivates us enormously for the future. In short, a giant step when we know that the three main causes of cancer mortality are recurrences, generalization of the cancer caused by metastases, and resistance to treatment. And that, at present, there is no other known molecule capable of acting like MitoQ," Pierre Sonveaux said.

Photo: Pexels/Ivan Samkov

The drug further shows astounding results in clinical trials — another breakthrough discovery in fighting cancer. The formulation’s success can increase the number of breast cancer survivors. More importantly, it can be the blueprint for developing similar drugs to attack cells of other types of cancer.

The team’s game-changing study was possible not only due to sponsorship but also through collaborations. They worked with clinicians and oncologists to properly provide the drug similarly to how patients take treatments in the hospital. Supplemental research is still needed to launch the breakthrough drug. Quality assurance is vital for patients to safely use the treatment. Breast cancer patients will have another option once the drug is approved — that day will be one of good news for many!