FERMT2 identified as potential breast cancer target

In a paper published in Cancer Research, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic showed that integrin protein fermitin family member 2 (FERMT2; KIND2) promotes recruitment and subversion of host macrophages, thereby accelerating metastatic progression of breast cancer. The authors suggested that inhibiting FERMT2 could be used to treat breast cancer.

Based on observations that increased FERMT2 expression in breast cancer biopsy samples correlated with reduced patient survival, the researchers knocked down FERMT2 expression in human and mouse breast cancer cells and showed that FERMT2 deficiency inhibited cell invasion and migration without altering proliferation rates. In a mouse model of breast cancer, FERMT2 deficiency slowed tumor growth rate by more than 80%...