UCSF scientists caught cancer cells in the act of breaking into fat cells and releasing their fat. The energy heist seems to be critical for the growth of deadly breast cancer. The study appears in Nature Communications.

When triple-negative breast cancer grows, the fat cells around it seem to shrink.

UCSF researchers have discovered that the cells of these tumors, which are among the deadliest types of breast cancer, build molecular tunnels, called gap junctions, into nearby fat cells. The tumor cells then send instructions that trigger the fat cells to release stores of energy that could feed the cancer.

Blocking the gap junctions stopped tumors from growing.

“Cancers thrive by hijacking the body’s energy sources and we’ve identified how this works in triple negative breast cancer,” said Andrei Goga, Ph.D., professor of cell and tissue biology at UCSF, co-leader of the Breast Oncology Program in the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, and senior author of the paper.

Goga and his team made their discovery by analyzing fat and tumor cells from breast cancer patients, as well as laboratory models of breast cancer.

The findings have immediate clinical implications. Although no one is yet testing drugs that block gap junctions for breast cancer, there are ongoing clinical trials using these drugs for brain cancer.

“This is a golden opportunity for us to develop effective strategies to treat the most aggressive forms of breast cancer.”