Understanding how targeting copper can help prevent the spread of triple negative breast cancer

Triple negative breast cancer doesn’t have the usual targets that many breast cancer treatments are designed to attack on cancer cells. Meaning it has fewer targeted treatments and that people diagnosed with this type of breast cancer have to rely mostly on surgery and chemotherapy.

We need to find better treatments, so people with triple negative breast cancer aren’t left behind. Treatments that are more effective and don’t come with gruelling side effects. And that give people with triple negative breast cancer more choices.

That’s why we’re researching now. Exploring ways to stop triple negative breast cancer in its tracks. So people with this type of breast cancer can live and live well. Without the fear of it coming back.

Copper is an essential mineral that our bodies need in small amounts. But recent research has shown it can help triple negative breast cancer cells grow and spread.

There’s a drug that can reduce copper levels. It’s called tetrathiomolybdate (TEH-truh-THY-oh-muh-LIB-dayt), or TTM. And it works by sticking to copper in the body and helping to remove it. It’s already used to treat some rare copper-overload conditions. But it could also have potential for triple negative breast cancer.

A recent, early clinical trial using TTM showed that it could reduce the chances of triple negative breast cancer spreading. But we don’t understand how this treatment works, or why some people benefit more than others.

So Dr Cinzia Imberti and her PhD student are working to answer these questions. They’re using advanced medical imaging technology to understand how treatment with TTM changes where copper is inside triple negative breast cancer cells. Researchers are also studying triple negative breast cancer in mice, seeing how TTM changes where copper goes in the body and what cancer processes it disrupts.

They’re looking for signs that TTM is working to treat triple negative breast cancer. And seeing if these can be tracked in scans and used in clinics to show if the treatment is working.

Living with the fear of breast cancer coming back can be all consuming. And if it does return, it's devastating. We need to find ways to stop the disease spreading. Because when this happens, breast cancer is treatable but cannot be cured. This will remove the fear from people’s lives.

This research will reveal how an anti-copper drug can reduce the spread of triple negative breast cancer. And it could tell us who could benefit most. More than that, it aims to develop tools doctors can use in clinics to see if the treatment is working. Tools that could give people peace of mind.

All of this can help pave the way for new, personalised treatments for people with triple negative breast cancer.

Thousands. This research could find better treatments for the 8,000 people who are diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer each year in the UK. That’s 15% of all breast cancer diagnoses.