NIH -- Using laboratory and mouse models of human breast cancer, researchers have found that a small molecule capable of targeting specific proteins on the surface of breast cancer cells can inhibit the growth of breast cancer cells that migrate to the brain. The small molecule used in the studies was the drug lapatinib (Tykerb), which disrupts an important breast cancer metabolic process called the Her2/neu signaling pathway. Lapatinib inhibits the activation of growth signaling proteins and their signaling pathways as well as cell migration and proliferation. Using the mouse model, the drug reduced the number of brain lesions that resulted from the injection of human cells. The study, which appeared online July 29, 2008, in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, was conducted by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
