Breast cancer awareness month: new frontiers in targeting cancer metabolism 

In honour of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we highlight new research from Swiss scientists, showing how breast cancer cells rely on specific metabolic pathways for growth and metastasis, paving the way for an “effective multimodal treatment strategy.”

With five-year survival rates for metastatic breast cancer still below 30%, breakthroughs in both understanding and treatment are needed urgently. During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we pay tribute to the dedicated scientists working at critical stages of the drug discovery and manufacturing pipeline – and explain how our products can support this essential work.

Breast cancer remains the most common malignancy in women worldwide, and a leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Over the past decade, advances in sequencing and molecular biology techniques have revealed significant disease heterogeneity, identifying distinct subtypes and molecular drivers. These discoveries have led to the design of several effective new therapies, although drug resistance continues to pose a major challenge.

Supporting innovation in drug discovery

TRC research chemicals from LGC Standards, and ATCC cellular models, which are exclusively distributed by LGC in Europe and Africa, are widely used by scientists to probe disease mechanisms and design novel breast cancer therapies. These products have been cited in more than 4,000 breast cancer studies over the past year, contributing to research into cancer metabolism, genetic drivers, drug delivery methods, and CRISPR based therapeutic target screening, among other areas.

Shining a light on the emerging field of cancer metabolism

One hundred years have passed since Otto Warburg first discovered alterations in cancer metabolism, laying the foundation for what has become a thriving field of research. His observation, now known as the Warburg Effect, highlighted that cancer cells preferentially use glycolysis to produce energy, even when oxygen is abundant - unlike most normal cells, which use this pathway primarily in low oxygen conditions. This discovery was revolutionary, suggesting that cancer could be targeted by disrupting its altered metabolic pathways.

Despite this early insight, therapeutic progress in targeting cancer metabolism has been slow, with only a few metabolism-based drugs progressing to advanced preclinical and clinical stages. Yet cancer metabolism remains a promising frontier, offering novel ways to halt tumour growth and metastasis.

A groundbreaking study, published in Nature Communications by the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research, citing TRC metabolic pathway blockers and ATCC cell lines, such as 4T1, highlights how a subset of cancer cells, known as metastasis-initiating cells (MICs), undergo metabolic adaptations. These include changes within the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA ) and fatty acid metabolism, alongside morphological changes such as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), all of which fuel cancer cell spread.

Excitingly, the study demonstrated that inhibiting production of the key metabolite acetyl-CoA, or targeting epigenetic modifications like Histone H3 acetylation (H3K27AC) significantly reduced MIC frequency and metastatic potential. Lead author Megan Young explains, “Our work demonstrates that precise regulation of histone acetylation is crucial for metastasis… [and] perturbing histone acetylation can be an effective and multimodal treatment strategy.” However, she also notes that “It may… be essential to target multiple acetyl-CoA generating pathways and additionally target downstream epigenetic modifiers coupled with closely monitoring response to treatment for full and long-lasting efficacy.” These findings offer promising therapeutic strategies aimed at disrupting the metabolic foundations of cancer metastasis.

Clinical support

In addition to supporting discovery, our TRC and LoGical product lines provide a comprehensive range of drug standards, supporting various clinical applications, including therapeutic drug monitoring, pharmacokinetics studies, drug metabolism, and biomarker analysis - as evidenced by thousands of citations in these areas within the past 12 months. For example, TRC’s SIL standards, featuring deuterated, carbon and nitrogen labelled compounds, are widely used in method development for these applications, specifically for targeted, hormonal and chemotherapy breast cancer treatments such as abemaciclib, everolimus, and paclitaxel.

Delivering excellence in drug manufacturing

LGC Standards provides high-quality pharmaceutical reference materials for breast cancer drug manufacture. Our Mikromol range includes reference materials for widely used chemotherapy drugs, such as doxorubicin as well as targeted therapies like palbociclib, and abemaciclib. We also provide standards for their impurities and excipients, ensuring the quality and safety of your formulations.

Furthermore, our Mikromol extractable and leachable products help detect harmful chemical changes in drug formulations caused by interactions with packaging, while our nitrosamine reference materials assist in the detection of potentially carcinogenic breakdown products. In addition, to meet mandatory heavy metals testing requirements, our VHG standards range offers reliable solutions for final drug formulations.

This Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we acknowledge the critical role that researchers, clinical scientists and manufacturers play in the fight against breast cancer. We are proud to be part of the global effort to develop safer, more effective treatments by supporting scientists and drug producers with high-quality research tools and reference standards. Together, we are working towards a future where breast cancer is not only treatable but curable.

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