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Record W4415929082 · doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09684-7

Anti-progestin therapy targets hallmarks of breast cancer risk

2025· article· en· W4415929082 on OpenAlexaff
Bruno M. Simões, Robert Pedley, Curtis W. McCloskey, Matthew Roberts, Austin D. Reed, Alecia‐Jane Twigger, Pirashaanthy Tharmapalan, Amanda Caruso, S. Cabral, A. Wilby, Hannah Harrison, Yuxi Zhou, Alice Greenhalgh, Suad A. Alghamdi, Martina Forestiero, Jesica Lopez-Muñoz, Jasmin Roche, Ren Jie Tuieng, M. Aurangzeb Khan, Steven Squires, Susan Astley, Elaine F. Harkness, Angélica Santiago-Gómez, Katherine Spence, Jessica Ritchie, Susan Pritchard, Yit Yoong Lim, Michael J. Sherratt, Sebastiano Andò, D. Gareth Evans, Andrew Gilmore, Walid T. Khaled, Rama Khokha, Robert B. Clarke, Sacha J. Howell

Bibliographic record

VenueNature · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
TopicEstrogen and related hormone effects
Canadian institutionsPrincess Margaret Cancer CentreUniversity Health Network
FundersNational Institute for Health and Care ResearchWellcome Trust
KeywordsProgenitor cellBreast cancerStromal cellExtracellular matrixProgesterone receptorProgenitorReceptorUlipristal acetate

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

Abstract Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in women worldwide 1 . Here, in the Breast Cancer-Anti-Progestin Prevention Study 1 (BC-APPS1; NCT02408770 ), we assessed whether progesterone receptor antagonism with ulipristal acetate for 12 weeks reduces surrogate markers of breast cancer risk in 24 premenopausal women. We used multilayered OMICs and live-cell approaches as readouts for molecular features alongside clinical imaging and tissue micromechanics correlates. Ulipristal acetate reduced epithelial proliferation (Ki67) and the proportion, proliferation and colony formation capacity of luminal progenitor cells, the putative cell of origin of aggressive breast cancers 2 . MRI scans showed reduction in fibroglandular volume with treatment, whereas single-cell RNA sequencing, proteomics, histology and atomic force microscopy identified extracellular matrix remodelling with reduced collagen organization and tissue stiffness. Collagen VI was the most significantly downregulated protein after ulipristal acetate treatment, and we uncovered an unanticipated spatial association between collagen VI and SOX9 high luminal progenitor cell localization, establishing a link between collagen organization and luminal progenitor activity. Culture of primary human breast epithelial cells in a stiff environment increased luminal progenitor activity, which was antagonized by anti-progestin therapy, strengthening this mechanistic link. This study offers a template for biologically informed early-phase therapeutic cancer prevention trials and demonstrates the potential for premenopausal breast cancer prevention with progesterone receptor antagonists through stromal remodelling and luminal progenitor suppression.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.000
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.000
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Bench or experimental · Consensus signal: Bench or experimental
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: Empirical
Teacher disagreement score0.003
Threshold uncertainty score0.010

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0000.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0000.000
Bibliometrics0.0000.000
Science and technology studies0.0000.000
Scholarly communication0.0000.000
Open science0.0000.000
Research integrity0.0000.001
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0030.001

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.002
GPT teacher head0.249
Teacher spread0.247 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designBench or experimental
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations4
Published2025
Admission routes1
Has abstractyes

Explore more

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