The research team at Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, HKUMed made a groundbreaking discovery that somatic deletion of a tumor suppressor gene, AKTIP (AKT interacting protein), can increase the growth of luminal breast cancer and develop resistance to hormone therapy.
The research conclusion was published in the journal Cell Reports in December 2022.
Breast cancer is the most common and the third most deadly cancer among women in Hong Kong.
Luminal breast cancer accounts for 60 to 70 percent of all breast cancer cases.
Due to a hormone receptor, estrogen receptor a (ERa), which promotes cell growth, targeting ERa by therapeutic agents, hormone therapy, specifically endocrine therapy, is a standard treatment for luminal breast cancer….