New therapeutic target for breast cancer

Cambridge, MA-based Curis has demonstrated that the Hedgehog signaling pathway is abnormally elevated in a series of human breast carcinoma tissue samples.

The report, in the medical journal, Cancer Research, states that administration of a Hedgehog pathway inhibitor, cyclopamine, blocks the growth of the breast cancer cells that were isolated from those tumour tissues. The report concludes that: 'the Hedgehog signaling pathway is constitutively activated in most breast carcinomas, and that the Hedgehog pathway is a potential therapeutic target for patients with breast cancer.'

Breast cancer affects women primarily, but not exclusively. It is the most frequently diagnosed non-skin cancer in women. The National Cancer Institute estimates that there will be more than 212,000 new cases of breast cancer in the United States in 2004, and more than 40,000 will die of the disease.

Daniel Passeri, Curis' president and chief executive officer, said: 'Several years ago, scientists at Curis developed the hypothesis that certain cancers may be using the Hedgehog pathway as a means of providing tumours with growth factor support and that inhibitors of the Hedgehog pathway may constitute a novel and selective approach for the treatment of these cancers. With each new cancer type that is linked to the Hedgehog pathway, we come closer to the validation of that hypothesis.'

Curis has developed several cancer drug candidates, including small molecules, designed to block or antagonise abnormal activation of the Hedgehog pathway. Previous scientific publications have linked abnormal Hedgehog pathway activation to the progression of several cancers, including basal cell carcinoma, small cell lung cancer, medulloblastoma, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer and others.