LOUISIANA: LSU chemist and collaborator discover a natural-based therapy to treat an aggressive form of breast cancer
A Louisiana State University chemist and her research team have discovered a promising new treatment for triple-negative breast cancer, or TNBC, an aggressive form of breast cancer with limited treatment options. Compared to other types of breast cancer, TNBC has a shorter overall survival rate, and is more common in women of color and women under the age of 40.
A portion of this research was funded by the NIH INBRE program.
“Non-selective chemotherapy treatments can’t differentiate between cancer and non-cancerous tissue, resulting in harm to both cancer and non-cancerous, healthy cells,” said LSU Chemistry Assistant Professor Fatima Rivas. “Thus, there is a critical need to discover effective drug therapies that target TNBC cells without harming normal cells.”
The Rivas research group is studying potential effective therapies using natural products to selectively target tumor cells and reduce mortality rates associated with TNBC.