A drug targeting a key regulator in triple-negative breast cancer reduced tumour growth and cancer stem cell viability in laboratory models.

Triple-negative breast cancer is an aggressive subtype that disproportionately affects women under 40 and accounts for about 15 to 20 per cent of breast cancers.

The disease lacks receptors for oestrogen, progesterone and the HER2 protein, which are targeted by several cancer drugs, making it particularly difficult to treat.

Researchers from the National University of Singapore’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine investigated mechanisms that allow triple-negative breast cancer cells to spread and resist treatment.

They examined regulators of Wnt signalling, a pathway involved in processes including cell growth and movement, and identified a master regulator called DP103.

DP103 is a gene that controls a major biological process. The researchers found it creates a cycle in which cancer cells continue to grow and spread while resisting treatment and maintaining cancer stem cells linked to disease recurrence.

The team then investigated whether a targeted drug known as Supinoxin, or RX-5902, could block DP103 and its effects in triple-negative breast cancer.

Analysis of 21 samples, including patient tumour tissue, laboratory-grown breast cancer cells and organoids derived from local cancer patients, found that the drug reduced cancer stem cell viability by 40 to 60 per cent.

Tumour growth in laboratory-grown tumour models fell by about 50 per cent.

In laboratory models, treatment also reduced tumour size by around 90 per cent while largely sparing healthy cells.

It also extended survival, with half of the treated laboratory models reaching 70 days and beyond, compared with none in the untreated group.

DP103 had previously been identified as a biomarker for triple-negative breast cancer by a team led by Alan Prem Kumar, an assistant professor with the NUS Centre for Cancer Research and principal investigator for the new study.

RX-5902 is already being studied as a treatment for breast cancer, and Kumar said the findings could help identify patients who may be more likely to benefit.

“Our findings suggest that DP103 could potentially serve as a diagnostic biomarker to identify the patients most likely to benefit from RX-5902 treatment, paving the way for a more precise, personalised approach to treating triple-negative breast cancer,” he said.

“Instead of treating all patients the same, future clinical trials could focus on those whose tumours have high levels of DP103, where the therapy is expected to have the greatest impact,” said Kumar.

First author Cai Wanpei said RX-5902 could prevent beta-catenin, a protein whose mutation is associated with various cancers, from entering the nucleus of human cells and switching off genes that drive cancer growth and spread.

“This slows tumour progression and triggers apoptosis – the natural death of cancer cells,” said Cai, who was a PhD student at the NUS Centre for Cancer Research and NUS Medicine’s pharmacology department during the research.

Study co-author Celestial T. Yap said triple-negative breast cancer remains particularly difficult to treat because conventional treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and immunotherapy may not work for all patients.

She said DP103 could represent a “biological vulnerability” in the disease.

“This discovery offers new insights that could support more precise patient selection and open the door to better targeted strategies for durable disease control and improved clinical outcomes,” said Yap, an associate professor with the NUS Centre for Cancer Research and NUS Medicine’s physiology department.

The researchers said abnormal Wnt signalling also drives several other cancers, meaning the findings could offer avenues for treating other aggressive cancers.

Their next steps include validating DP103 as a predictive biomarker in larger patient groups and further developing therapies targeting the regulator for clinical testing.

The team will also investigate combining RX-5902 with existing therapies to further improve treatment outcomes.

By Women’s HealthX

As healthcare organisations navigate tightening compliance mandates, evolving reimbursement frameworks, and shifting health economics, the single most critical asset for leadership is operational visibility into what their industry counterparts are executing right now.

Ahead of the Women’s HealthX marketplace in Boston this December, a cross-functional steering committee of health plans, hospital networks, biopharma innovators, and enterprise employers has launched the definitive 2026 U.S. Health Infrastructure Survey.

The objective of this brief, multi-state index is to bypass abstract market fluff and map out exactly how the country’s elite healthcare stakeholders are practically structuring their 2027 budgets, clinical protocols, and technology procurement guidelines.

Some of the questions we are asking:

• Health Plans & Payers “What is the biggest operational barrier to expanding women’s health coverage?”
• Health Systems & Providers “What is the biggest women’s health priority for health systems over the next 24 months?”
• Pharma & Life Sciences “What is the biggest commercial hurdle facing women’s health innovation?”
• Employers & Benefits Leaders “Which women’s health challenge creates the greatest workforce impact?”

By contributing just 60 seconds of your operational insight to the index, you will ensure your specific sector’s parameters are accurately represented.

In return for your participation, you will secure a priority, pre-ordered copy of the completed 30-page intelligence report when the final data drops this September!

See where your direct peer groups are drawing their line in the sand for the upcoming fiscal year.

Contribute 60 seconds and pre-order your national benchmark report

Women’s HealthX 2026 | From Rhetoric to Results

Encore Boston Harbor | December 3-4 2026

Bypass abstract market rhetoric to evaluate real-world health economics, regulatory compliance mandates, and care delivery systems.

Join the region’s foremost health plan medical directors, hospital COOs, biopharma innovators, and enterprise benefits buyers anchoring our 2026 tracks.

Review full agenda

Meet confirmed speakers

Secure your pass

Women accounted for 71.4 per cent of global health workforce growth between 1990 and 2023, according to a study covering 204 countries and territories.

The global workforce almost tripled over the period, rising from 40.9m to 122.1m workers.

Women represented 68.9 per cent of all health workers in 2023, but remained concentrated in professions that generally offer lower pay and fewer leadership opportunities.

The study analysed 20 groups of specially trained health personnel, including doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, dentists and community health workers.

Between 1990 and 2023, the workforce grew by more than 81m people, including an additional 18.9m nurses and 8.7m doctors.

In 2023, there were 33.2m nurses, 15.1m doctors, 7.6m community health workers, 6.8m pharmacists and pharmaceutical assistants, and 6.1m dentists and dental assistants worldwide.

Women made up 80.7 per cent of nurses, 96 per cent of midwives and 89.5 per cent of community health workers, while fewer than half of doctors were women.

A similar pattern was seen in dentistry and pharmacy, where women were more likely to work as assistants than as dentists or pharmacists.

Megan Knight, lead author of the study and researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said: “Women have transformed the global health workforce over the past three decades, but they continue to be concentrated in professions that generally offer lower pay and fewer opportunities for leadership.

“Building stronger health systems will require not only expanding the workforce, but also creating equitable opportunities for career advancement, leadership, and safe, supportive working environments.”

Despite the growth, researchers estimated that an additional 34.4m doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists and pharmacists would be needed to achieve moderate levels of universal health coverage.

Universal health coverage means people can access essential health services without experiencing financial hardship.

The estimated global shortage includes 23.9m nurses and midwives, 7.1m doctors, 1.8m dentists and 1.6m pharmacists.

South Asia had the largest estimated shortages, requiring an additional 2.6m doctors and 10m nurses and midwives to reach the study’s benchmark for moderate universal health coverage.

Sub-Saharan Africa also had substantial shortages. Nursing density was estimated at 14.5 nurses per 10,000 people, compared with 121.8 per 10,000 in high-income countries.

At country level, there were 3.2 nurses per 10,000 people in Chad and 3.3 in Madagascar, compared with 171.7 in Belgium and 161.4 in the US.

Dr Annie Haakenstad, senior author of the study and assistant professor of health metrics sciences at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, said: “Health workers are the foundation of every health system.

“Although the global workforce has expanded dramatically, millions more doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, and pharmacists will be needed to ensure people everywhere can access essential health services.

“These findings provide countries with minimum thresholds for planning the workforce needed to strengthen health systems and move toward universal health coverage.”

The study estimated that moderate universal health coverage was associated with minimum workforce densities of 23.8 doctors and 64.5 nurses and midwives per 10,000 people, alongside 5.2 dentists and 5.6 pharmacists per 10,000.

Researchers said closing workforce gaps would require continued investment in education, recruitment, retention and working conditions.

They also highlighted gender-responsive policies, including leadership development, workplace protections, paid parental leave and flexible work arrangements, as measures that could support a predominantly female workforce.