COLCHESTER scientists have made a breakthrough which could pave the way for a new breast cancer treatment.

Essex University academic Dr Elena Klenova worked with Adhip Mandal, a researcher at Colchester General Hospital, to study a protein called CTCF.

The study found there are two types of the protein – a good version found in healthy breast tissue and a bad one found in cancerous tissue.

Dr Klenova said: “Practically, it means specific therapies can be developed to re-establish the good CTCF, which could result in the normalisation of tumour cells.”

The tissue studied in the project was donated by women undergoing treatment in the breast cancer unit at Essex County Hospital, in Lexden Road, Colchester.

Mr Mandal said: “It is because these women were kind enough to consent that the study has been possible. I hope women who donated tissue will feel proud to have been involved with something which could be really beneficial.”

A report on the results of the study, funded by the Breast Cancer Campaign and the Breast Cancer Research Trust, was published in the Clinical Cancer Research journal.

It reveals how only the good protein is found in normal breast tissue, while 87 per cent of breast tumours also contained the bad protein. Larger and more advanced tumours contained more bad proteins.

The researchers created conditions which would encourage the proteins to grow and proliferate, mimicking how tumours start.

They studied them under a microscope and found the bigger they grew, the more the good protein was replaced by the bad.

When the growth was stopped, the process was reversed.

Dr Klenova said: “This study provides further evidence CTCF plays an important role in breast cancer development.”

Arlene Wilkie, Breast Cancer Campaign’s director of research and policy, said: “Dr Klenova’s work provides further information about how breast cancer develops.

“The more we know about the role of proteins, such as CTCF, the quicker new treatments can be developed. About 45,500 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, so new treatments are needed to give them the best possible chance of beating this disease.”

The study was led by Dr Klenova with help from several colleagues, including Mr Mandal, who is a research fellow funded by Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust.