Teams of researchers in Cardiff, Zaragoza in Spain, and Brno in the Czech Republic have focused on the use of TRAIL, a member of the TNF cytokine superfamily, as a more effect treatment for breast cancer.
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Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, in which massive sums of research money are invested every year. Laboratory scientists are very familiar with cancer and its ability to metastasise, a deadly feature of the disease which is caused by the multiplication of certain types of cells, called stem cells. It is these cells that are the key to cancer research.
On the basis of its strength in cancer stem cell research, Cardiff University created the European Cancer Stem Cell Research Institute in 2010 to establish the university as an international leader in the field and, importantly, develop new cancer therapies to improve the lives of patients with cancer.
A team at the School of Biosciences identified a weakness in breast cancer stem cells, the cell type responsible for tumour spread and relapse: they are sensitive to an anticancer agent called tumour necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL).1
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