Research projects

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) represents 20% of diagnosed breast cancers and it is characterised by expressing neither hormonal receptors nor HER2. TNBC patients have a poor prognosis, given that there is now no therapy for this, and reappearance of the tumour and progression of the disease occur in a high percentage (45%) of cases. Due to this, research is taking place into new agents and therapeutic strategies. Previous data from our research group have shown that the inhibition of lipogenesis by fatty acid syntase (FASN), has an antitumoural function and increases the power of chemotherapy and immunotherapy in models of breast and lung cancer. In a recent study which the group presented to the world breast cancer congress (SABCS, Texas, USA) we observed the overexpression of FASN in samples from TNBC patients. Our objective is therefore based on the molecular and functional characterisation of the role of FASN in cell models and murine models implanted with samples from TNBC patients, with the aim of proposing new and more effective therapeutic strategies based on the inhibition of FASN (alone or in combination) for the treatment of TNBC patients. Parallel to this, we will develop cellular models of TNBC resistant to current treatments, for subsequent molecular and genetic analysis of the role played by the metabolism of fatty acids in these resistant models, with the aim of extending the study of the impact of FASN to TNBC patients who are chemoresistant.