Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is characterized by a lack of three receptors that are targeted in other breast cancers to reduce tumor growth. The lack of clinically actionable targets for TNBC highlights a need for markers that can be modulated for favorable outcomes.
Qiuyin Cai, MD, PhD, and colleagues have identified a biomarker that impacts not only TNBC, but multiple breast cancer types.
Reporting in Carcinogenesis, the researchers show that miR-374b, a microRNA that is positively correlated with TNBC patient survival, had low levels in breast cancer tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues. Lower expression of miR-374b was correlated with higher expression of CCND1 and TGFA genes. Increasing miR-374b or decreasing CCND1 or TGFA levels decreased tumor cell proliferation in vitro and stunted tumor growth in vivo.
This study clarifies the mechanism by which miR-374b inhibits cancer progression, broadening possibilities for a widely applicable treatment for breast cancer, including TNBC.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants CA118229, CA098131, CA160056).