Overview

• A study published in EMBO Molecular Medicine indicates that selenium, a mineral found in foods like Brazil nuts, is crucial for the survival of triple negative breast cancer cells when they spread.
• The research was conducted by the Cancer Research UK Scotland Institute in Glasgow and suggests that interfering with selenium uptake could stop the cancer from spreading.
• Triple negative breast cancer is difficult to treat and often becomes inoperable when it spreads to other parts of the body.
• Researchers found that when cancer cells are not clustered together, they are highly dependent on selenium to survive.
• The study offers hope for new treatments targeting selenium metabolism in cancer cells, potentially preventing the disease from spreading further.