"The logical implication of our work is that by adding the protein interferon to antiestrogen therapy, we should be able to turn on the IRF 1 gene to make these tumors sensitive to antiestrogen therapy, hopefully inhibiting new breast cancers or reoccurrences of disease," said Clarke.

Clarke and his Georgetown colleagues will next use preclinical studies to test the effects of adding interferon to tamoxifen treatment.  Used as a primary treatment, interferon can be extremely toxic, so we will need to carefully study doses and timing of drug delivery before this can be tested in patients, said Clarke.    

We would hope to be able to give low doses of interferon to induce IRF 1 and sensitize the tumors “ we are not looking to add enough interferon to get its effects as a single agent, said Clarke.  

Co-authors of the study, which was funded by the National Cancer Institute, are Kerrie B. Bouker, Todd C. Skaar, David R. Fernandez, Kerry A. O'Brien, Rebecca B. Riggins, and Donghua Cao.

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