RESEARCHERS have launched a project which aims to unlock one of the biological keys that give rise to breast cancer.

Leading Glasgow researchers are studying how a molecule known to be associated with the development of blood cancer could also be involved in a particularly aggressive type of breast cancer.

The project will explore if this molecule could be used to develop a new treatment for the disease, potentially saving hundreds of lives.

More than 1,000 women in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area are diagnosed with breast cancer each year on average, and more than 200 die from the disease.

Across the UK, 50,000 women are diagnosed with the disease each year, and 12,000 women still die from the disease every year.

The project, funded by a pilot grant of around £15,000 from research charity Breast Cancer Campaign, is being undertaken by Dr Karen Blyth, based at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow, and co-investigator Dr Kirsteen Campbell.

The scientists plan to carry out experiments involving two molecules called 'MCL-1' and 'MYC', which are known to be involved in the development of cancer, and particularly in leukaemia.

Around 15 per cent of breast cancers are found to be 'triple-negative', a particularly aggressive form of the disease that cannot be treated with targeted drugs commonly used to treat other types of breast cancer.

Chemotherapy is also not effective for some patients, who are left with even fewer options.

Katherine Woods, senior research communications manager at Breast Cancer Campaign, said: "There are around 7,500 new cases of triple-negative breast cancer in the UK each year but no targeted treatment options.

"We must find more effective ways of treating these patients and innovative research from Drs Blyth and Campbell will help shed more light on how this type of the disease develops.

"This could eventually lead to the development of new treatments, improving patients' chances of survival."

Drs Blyth and Campbell will look at 500 samples of breast tumours donated by patients and test whether blocking MCL-1 could help improve treatments, using breast cancer cells grown in the lab and implanted into mice.