A team of scientists at the University of Edinburgh's Breakthrough Breast Cancer Unit has identified a gene that may cause breast cancer to spread around the body.
The research findings, published in the July 2010
edition of the British Journal of Cancer, could lead
to the development of new treatments for one
of the most common forms of breast cancer that
affects 9,000 women in the UK each year.
The expert team is the first to identify the role
of the gene C35 in aiding the spread of HER2-
positive breast cancer to other parts of the body.
It is thought this gene contributes to cancer cells
breaking off from the main tumour and dispersing.
