Body’s immune protein fights breast cancer

The body’s cancer-fighting defenses include an immune protein that seems able to distinguish between normal and malignant breast cells. When confronted with a malignant cell, the protein instructs it to self-destruct, but leaves normal cells unaffected, scientists find.

This quality suggests that the protein, interleukin-25, has potential as a breast cancer treatment, says study coauthor Saori Furuta, a molecular biologist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in California.