Editorial
Development of 'synthetic lethal' strategies to target BRCA1-deficient breast cancer
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Correspondence: Max S Wicha mwicha@umich.edu
University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, 1500 E. Medical Center Drive, 6302 CC Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5942, USA
Breast Cancer Research 2009, 11:108 doi:10.1186/bcr2362
Published: 23 September 2009Abstract
Recent clinical trials demonstrating the efficacy of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors for the treatment of BRCA1-deficient breast cancer have provided support for the 'synthetic lethal' concept of targeted cancer therapeutics. A new study provides further preclinical validation of this concept by demonstrating that BRCA1-deficient mouse mammary tumor cells are selectively sensitive to an inhibitor of the polycomb gene EZH2. The development of polycomb gene inhibitors may provide a novel approach to selectively exploit the molecular alterations in BRCA1-deficient breast tumors.