Do you have this cancer-causing gene? Scientists find gene that causes deadly form of breast cancer

There is new hope for women suffering with, or at high risk for, breast cancer.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in England have discovered what triggers triple-negative breast cancer, which is fast growing, difficult to treat, and one of the most deadly forms of breast cancer.

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This form of very aggressive breast cancer accounts for nearly 20 percent of all breast cancer cases, and usually strikes women while they are in their 20s and 30s. Worst of all, the majority of breast cancer fighting drugs are useless against it.

The culprit is a gene, called BCL11A, and having this gene causes breast cancer to advance faster, and also significantly lowers a woman's chances of survival.

The study looked at 3,000 women, and in mice, found that removing or "turning down" this particular gene, made cancer cells less cancerous and made treatment easier.

"This exciting result identifies a novel breast cancer gene in some of the more difficult to treat cases," said Professor Carlos Caldas, a researcher involved in the study.

A member of Cancer Research UK, Dr. Emma Smith believes that these new findings could pave the way for eliminating one of the worst forms of breast cancer.

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"Figuring out the genes that play a role in triple-negative breast cancer could lead to new ways to tackle the disease," she said. "This study is a promising step forward.

"But these results are from cells grown in the lab and studies in mice, so they're still at an early stage. The next steps will be finding  out if the gene plays the same role in causing breast cancer in women, and whether drugs can be developed to target the faulty molecules."

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