Pregnancy protein 'may beat breast cancer'

Each year over a million women are diagnosed with breast cancer worldwide, making it the single most common form of cancer among the females and the biggest killer, but new research may be able to have an impact on these statistics.

New findings published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, claim that a protein found in a pregnancy hormone may be the key to beating cancer.

According to specialists at Albany Medical College in New York, hormones produced during pregnancy induce a protein that directly inhibits the growth of breast cancer. Known as alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), experts believe it may serve as an effective treatment for breast cancer or even stop the disease developing in the first place.

Lead researcher Dr Herbert Jacobson, a basic breast cancer researcher in the centre for immunology and microbial diseases and in the department of obstetrics, gynaecology and reproductive sciences at the facility, told cancer cover holders that hormones in pregnancy such as oestrogen all induce AFP.

"The body has a natural defence system against breast cancer," he added. "AFP needs to be safely harnessed and developed into a drug that can be used to protect women from breast cancer."

The expert's comments follow a study on rats which showed that treatment with oestrogen plus progesterone, oestrogen alone or human chorionic gonadotropin reduced the incidence of breast cancer.

In addition, the researchers noted that each of these treatments elevated the serum level of AFP and that the protein directly inhibited the growth of breast cancer cells growing in culture, suggesting that the hormones are preventing breast cancer through their induction of AFP.

Cancer Prevention Research editorial board member Dr Powel Brown told cancer insurance customers that the findings show great promise.

"This study is promising and suggests that additional animal studies need to be done before translation to humans. We may want to further test AFP for its cancer prevention activity," he concluded.

By Louise Jones

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