Scientists have discovered a gene that makes an aggressive form of breast cancer spread around the body.

The discovery could herald new treatments for the form of cancer that affects 9,000 women in the UK each year.

British researchers have been studying a disease known as HER2 positive breast cancer, which represents around one in five of all cases.

Current treatment involves the drug Herceptin, which attaches itself to the HER2 protein and prevents cancer cells growing and multiplying.

Now the team from the University of Edinburgh have identified the gene known as C35 as the culprit that causes the cancer-cells to spread.

Research leader Dr Elad Katz, of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Unit, said: ‘HER2-positive cancers are a group of cancers that are known to be aggressive in that they grow quicker and spread quicker.

‘For a long time we have been concentrating on the protein HER2 but now we have this gene that could well be responsible for the spread of the cancer.

‘It causes the cells to detach from the original tumour and to start spreading inside the breast and further afield. This is absolutely critical because what we know is that the spread of the cancer is what kills the patient.

‘We are at an early stage but there is now a real possibility there could be a new treatment for women with HER2-positive breast cancer.’

Professor David Harrison, the unit’s director, said: ‘This is an important development because we now know one of the key triggers to the spread of this type of cancer.

‘It is exciting to know there is a drug out there which could potentially stop this process happening and save the lives of women with breast cancer.

‘We now need to do more work in the lab to prove this concept before we can start patient trials.’

The research is published online in the British Journal of Cancer.

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Daily Mail