Italian researchers have found a gene implicated in the development of breast cancer.
A team led by Bruno Amati of Rome's European Oncology Institute studied how the gene, Tip-60, works in animals.
"Tumours grow faster in the early stages - so rapidly that their DNA is damaged. Tip-60 detects this and blocks the tumour," Amati told the international scientific journal Nature.
The gene is a so-called onco-suppressor, or genetic component that kicks in when cancers start in a healthy cell environment.
The challenge now is to get it to work in conditions which are favourable to cancer growth.
"We activated an oncogene, removed one of the two copies of Tip-60 normally present in the body, and the cancer formation accelerated," Amati added.
"Therefore Tip-60 is a gene that blocks tumours".
