SYDNEY, Oct. 31 – Researchers at Australia’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research say that the activity of a protein called CDK1 could help doctors predict which estrogen‑receptor–positive breast cancers will respond to the widely used CDK4/6 inhibitors, according to a statement released Friday.
In the study, published in Advanced Science, investigators examined more than 400 biopsy samples of ER+ breast cancer. They found that CDK1 activity increased as cancers became more aggressive and that higher activity was associated with poorer patient outcomes. The work suggests CDK1 could serve as a biomarker for how a tumor will react to CDK4/6 inhibitor therapy.
While the data point to a promising link between CDK1 and drug resistance, the Garvan statement clarifies that the findings are preliminary. The authors note that larger, prospective trials are necessary before CDK1 status can be used to guide treatment decisions or to develop new therapies targeting the protein.
Because CDK4/6 inhibitors eventually lose effectiveness in many advanced‑stage patients, the study’s authors argue that identifying a reliable predictive marker could inform more personalized treatment strategies. That possibility remains speculative until the protein’s predictive power is validated in larger, well‑controlled clinical studies.
The research represents an early step toward tailoring breast‑cancer therapy based on molecular markers, but the team stresses that clinical implementation will await further confirmation of the CDK1–response relationship.
