Breast cancer drugs taken by thousands of women stop working because tumours ‘outsmart’ them
The tablets are meant to slash the female hormone oestrogen which fuels many tumours but one in three women stop responding to the drugs
BREAST cancer drugs stop working because tumours “outsmart” them, a study shows.
The tablets are meant to slash the hormone oestrogen which fuels more than two-thirds of breast tumours.
But one in three women stop responding to the 10p-a-day drugs – called aromatase inhibitors – and their cancer continues to spread.
Now scientists say it happens because tumours learn to make their own supply of the hormone.
They do this by “turning up” the activity of certain genes.
The findings, in journal Nature Genetics, could identify when patients need to switch drugs.
Researchers led by experts at Imperial College London studied samples from 150 women.
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In a quarter of those taking the drugs, tumours had started producing their own aromatase supply.
Breast cancer strikes around 55,000 women a year in the UK – and kills around 12,000.
Dr Richard Berks from Breast Cancer Now, said: “It is now critical we find ways to spot, at an early stage, whether a person’s breast cancer is becoming resistant to treatment.
“If so they can be moved onto more effective options.”