Scientists Find Possible Cause Of Different Types Of Breast Cancer

CAMBRIDGE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, CAMBRIDGE, UK. The Breast Cancer Research has recently published that researchers have found some new types of mammary glands cells that could lead to the cause of different breast cancers. These two types of early cells that have been discovered are called progenitor cells. This type of cell can only divide a limited number of times as compared to stem cells which could actually develop into any kind of cell and keep on dividing at the same time. Before the discovery, there was only one type of progenitor cells in mammary glands known by scientists.

Dr. John Stingl is the head of the research. He said the recent discovery suggests that mammary glands are actually much more complicated than scientists have thought. Usually, cancer cells are thought to begin in cells that produce many smaller cells that will eventually form tumor mass. Currently, there are different types of breast cancer which may have come from different progenitor cells. In the recent study, scientists have discovered oestrogen positive progenitors, a group of progenitor cells which contains oestrogen receptors and oestrogen negative cells group which doesn’t have oestrogen receptors.

They claim that oestrogen positive progenitor cells work similarly like the breast tissue of post-menopausal women which survive better in an environment with low oestrogen and progesterone. This could imply that tumors may develop from these cells in post-menopausal women. However, further experiments are still needed to confirm this claim. On the other hand, the oestrogen negative progenitor cells are more like the aggressive type of breast cancer which is called basal-like breast cancer. It is most likely to affect younger women.