A new paper has been published in Nature magazine, outlining how hypoxic cancer secretomes induce pre-metastatic bone lesions through lysyl oxidase (LOX).
The study shows how hypoxia is specifically associated with bone relapse in patients with oestrogen-receptor negative breast cancer, and identifies a novel mechanism of regulation of bone homeostasis and metastasis, opening up opportunities for novel therapeutic intervention with important clinical implications.
The researchers, who used a Whitley H35 Hypoxystation (pictured left), came to the following conclusion:
“Our data suggests LOX may well be a useful marker for predicting the likelihood of metastases to the bone in ER- breast cancer patients and identifying these patients for adjuvant bisphosphonate treatment. Our data highlight that the dosing and administration of LOX inhibitors under development will be critical as genetic targeting yielded more potent effects than our antibody in this study, and earlier work has shown that treatment with the non-specific LOX inhibitor ß-aminoproprionitrile can reduce bone colonization in intracardiac models when administered at the time of inoculation…”
To read the study in full, click here.