在一项突破性研究中，美国科学家发现了阻止常用抗乳腺癌药物起作用的基因，这一突破每年或能挽救数百人的生命。
乳腺癌患者在手术后通常服用化疗药物来阻止肿瘤扩散或反复，但是，有些患者却对此类药物具有抗药性，而最新研究结果则为用以确定这些患者的基因测试铺平道路。这样，医生就可以给检验结果呈阳性的患者服用其他的药物，令其活下来的几率大增。
最新研究聚焦于一种名为蒽环类抗癌药(Anthracycline)，这种药物通常作为“辅助”疗法给患者服用，有助于抑制患者术后病情反复。蒽环类抗癌药包括阿霉素、道诺霉素、表阿霉素等，在每年确诊患有乳腺癌的4.6万英国女性当中，大约一半服用这种药物。
美国波士顿丹纳·法伯癌症研究所的研究人员对85名患者的乳腺癌细胞样本做了研究，在大约五分之一的样本中，有两种基因过于活跃，使得癌细胞对药物治疗具有抗性。研究结果刊登在最新一期《自然—医学》（Nature Medicine）杂志上。
医疗记录证实，那些拥有这两种可疑基因的患者比没有它们的患者恢复情况更差。研究人员安德烈·理查德森(Andrea Richardson)博士说：“这些结果表明，对蒽环类抗癌药具有抗药性的肿瘤可能对其它药剂敏感。所以，这种方法作为一种测试手段将非常有用，可以帮助挑选对这些患者最为有效的疗法。”（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Nature Medicine 24 January 2010 | doi:10.1038/nm.2090
Amplification of LAPTM4B and YWHAZ contributes to chemotherapy resistance and recurrence of breast cancer
Yang Li1,2,9, Lihua Zou1,3,9, Qiyuan Li4,9, Benjamin Haibe-Kains5,6, Ruiyang Tian1, Yan Li1, Christine Desmedt5, Christos Sotiriou5, Zoltan Szallasi4,7, J Dirk Iglehart1,2, Andrea L Richardson1,8,9 & Zhigang Charles Wang1,2,9
Adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer after surgery has effectively lowered metastatic recurrence rates1. However, a considerable proportion of women suffer recurrent cancer at distant metastatic sites despite adjuvant treatment. Identification of the genes crucial for tumor response to specific chemotherapy drugs is a challenge but is necessary to improve outcomes2. By using integrated genomics, we identified a small number of overexpressed and amplified genes from chromosome 8q22 that were associated with early disease recurrence despite anthracycline-based adjuvant chemotherapy. We confirmed the association in an analysis of multiple independent cohorts. SiRNA-mediated knockdown of either of two of these genes, the antiapoptotic gene YWHAZ and a lysosomal gene LAPTM4B, sensitized tumor cells to anthracyclines, and overexpression of either of the genes induced anthracycline resistance. Overexpression of LAPTM4B resulted in sequestration of the anthracycline doxorubicin, delaying its appearance in the nucleus. Overexpression of these two genes was associated with poor tumor response to anthracycline treatment in a neoadjuvant chemotherapy trial in women with primary breast cancer. Our results suggest that 8q22 amplification and overexpression of LAPTM4B and YWHAZ contribute to de novo chemoresistance to anthracyclines and are permissive for metastatic recurrence. Overexpression of these two genes may predict anthracycline resistance and influence selection of chemotherapy.
