a) Drug resistance is the leading cause of death in women with estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer, the most common form of the disease.
b) Now, researchers have identified an ordinary dietary element that may increase the chances of a breast cancer becoming drug-resistant.
d) The connection of the amino acid leucine to drug resistance raises hopes that a relatively simple intervention, like a shift to a low-leucine diet, can reduce the incidence of drug resistance, which is responsible for a large portion of the roughly 40,000 breast cancer deaths every year.
c) The work also raises the possibility that a drug could be developed to mirror the effects of that dietary restriction, by blocking cells’ ability to take in leucine from the surrounding environment.
