Immune system discovery sparks breast cancer hope

Scientists believe they may have accidentally uncovered a new way of exploring the causes of breast cancer.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge discovered that breast cancer may be linked to a key part of the body’s immune system when studying the mammary gland.

Dr Walid Khaled and colleagues established that cytokines, which are released to encourage the production of anti-virus and anti-parasite cells, also trigger the production of milk-producing cells in the breast.

As breast cancer is especially prevalent in women who have just given birth, it is possible cancer occurs when signalling problems involving the release of cytokines occurs.

“Up until now we thought that breast development was controlled by just steroid and peptide hormones,” Dr Khaled said.

“The discovery of this role played by aspects of the immune system will open up new avenues for examining the development of breast cancer.”

Research group leader Dr Christine Watson added: “It is vital that we understand the processes involved as it is when these normal developmental events go wrong that we are at risk of cancer developing.”

There are more than 40,000 new cases of breast cancer every year in the UK alone.