You can't treat a disease until you understand what triggers it in the first place. Scientists know that about 75 percent of breast cancers are hormone dependent, meaning estrogen is the driving force.
Here's why: Estrogen binds with what's called estrogen receptors within acell. Think of estrogen as the car and estrogen receptors as the garage with a big "park here" sign on them. When estrogen arrives, it tells the cells to grow and divide. That's all well and good unless these growing and dividing cells mutate, resulting in cancer.
That's why the current breast cancer drugs, such as tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors, are designed to block estrogen.
In the quest for more targeted therapies to treat the disease, scientists have been looking at a familiar drug - aspirin and aspirin-like medications called non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS).
That's because aspirin blocks prostaglandins. This, in turn, lowers levels of an enzyme called aromatase, which boosts the amount of estrogen made by breast cancer cells.
If you can reduce aromatase, you can reduce levels of cancer-causing estrogen in breast tissue, according to Dr. Kotha Subbaramaiah, the Jack Fishman Associate Professor of Cancer Prevention at Weill Cornell Medical Center.
"You can use aspirin as one way of blocking prostaglandins," says Subbaramaiah. "It's like a highway and you're trying to put up different roadblocks [with breast cancer drugs]."
Researchers recently found two cell receptors that trigger events that eventually turn on the aromatase gene.
"Pinpointing the role of these receptors is like adding two important new parts to the tumor's 'instruction kit.' You have to understand all the players involved if you hope to uncover weak-nesses to fight or prevent
the disease," notes Dr. Andrew Dannenberg, director of the newly established
Cancer Center at New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
The research paves the way to develop breast cancer fighting drugs that may target these receptors.
In the meantime, more research is needed before doctors will recommend popping aspirin to help prevent breast cancer - after all, aspirin isn't risk-free.
But for those who already take aspirin for their heart health, they may be getting an added anti-breast-cancer benefit.
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