DeCure's autonomous Rare AI scientist is researching a drug-repurposing hypothesis for breast ductal adenoma — screening already-approved drugs against its 3-gene Open Targets disease module to publish open-access research. Research is fast; the path to publication is funded in milestone stages.
Disease moduleBreast ductal adenoma maps to a 3-gene Open Targets module — the target space DeCure's AI scientist screens approved drugs against.
DeCure.ai methodSignature reversal (LINCS) plus network proximity (STRING) rank already-approved drugs likely to perturb this module — the same engine that produces DeCure.ai's repurposing hypotheses.
Repurposing thesisScreening approved medicines against this disease module, then publishing the evidence for the strongest candidate. Known pharmacology and human exposure data make the first question sharper — they do not establish safety or efficacy in a new indication.
Research record
01
ResearchComing soon
Candidate research + dossier — target rationale, drug-repurposing thesis and evidence pack.proof: Published dossier + on-chain hash
02
ValidationComing soon
In-vitro biological validation at a contract research org (CRO).proof: CRO contract + in-vitro report
03
Peer review & paperComing soon
Peer-reviewed paper published open-access (preprint + journal).proof: DOI + open-access link + on-chain hash
Current lead
No approved-drug candidate for breast ductal adenoma is corroborated in the literature DeepSearch retrieved. Some conditions are managed with non-pharmacological care — a device, surgery or physical therapy — rather than a medicine; that may be the case here, or the literature we found may simply be too sparse yet to support a drug-repurposing angle.
Molecular view
AKT serine/threonine kinase 1 (AKT1) — AKT1 is one of the genes genetically linked to this disease in Open Targets — shown as context, not as a drug target we're pursuing: no approved-drug candidate for this disease is yet corroborated in the literature we found.
Loading structure…
helix sheet propanoylaminodrag to rotate · scroll to zoom
RCSB Protein Data Bank · entry 7NH5 · 1.9 Å · ligand ~{N}-methyl-6-[4-[[4-[2-oxidanylidene-6-(propanoylamino)-3~{H}-benzimidazol-1-yl]piperidin-1-yl]methyl]phenyl]-5-phenyl-pyridine-3-carboxamide (UC8). Experimental structure, not a prediction.
What the evidence adds up to
Ductal adenoma is a benign breast lesion that can simulate malignancy on clinical examination and mammography, according to a 1989 case report of a 72-year-old woman who presented with a feeling of thickening and asymmetrical nodularity. No other abstracts in this set address ductal adenoma specifically. The remaining abstracts discuss ductal carcinoma in situ and invasive breast cancer, which are distinct from ductal adenoma.
A 2008 review of ductal carcinoma in situ reports that for women with localised disease, randomised trials show radiation therapy after conservative surgery lowers the relative risk of progression to invasive disease by 60%. However, trials of conservative surgery alone for small, low-grade tumours with widely negative margins have produced conflicting results, and radiation is still generally recommended even for favourable pathology. A 2002 review notes that despite increased detection of ductal carcinoma in situ through mammography, its pathophysiology remains poorly understood, and molecular studies aim to identify genes involved in initiation and progression.
A 2014 safety study tested intraductal delivery of two cytotoxic drugs, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin and carboplatin, in 30 women prior to mastectomy. At the highest doses (50 mg doxorubicin, 300 mg carboplatin), side effects included mild nausea and vomiting in the carboplatin arm and local erythema lasting until surgery in the doxorubicin arm. Pharmacokinetics showed carboplatin entered systemic circulation rapidly, while doxorubicin had delayed peak concentrations substantially lower than expected from intravenous injection. The authors concluded intraductal cytotoxic delivery can be performed safely with minimal toxicity, but this study did not assess efficacy against any breast lesion, including ductal adenoma.
No abstract provides data on treatment or outcomes for ductal adenoma. What is missing is any clinical trial testing a drug specifically for ductal adenoma, any evidence linking the intraductal delivery approach to this benign lesion, and any patient stratification or funding directed at this rare diagnosis.
Evidence
Retrieved by DeepSearch across 234,678,978 indexed works and resolved on OpenAlex — ranked by citations, including the results that did not work.
Molecular Oncology · 2010 · 561 citations · open access
Histological types of breast cancer: How special are they?
AbstractBreast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, comprising multiple entities associated with distinctive histological and biological features, clinical presentations and behaviours and responses to therapy. Microarray-based technologies have unravelled the molecular underpinning of several characteristics of breast cancer, including metastatic propensity and histological grade, and have led to the identification of prognostic and predictive gene expression signatures. Furthermore, a molecular taxonomy of breast cancer based on transcriptomic analysis has been proposed. However, microarray studies have primarily focused on invasive ductal carcinomas of no special type. Owing to the relative rarity of special types of breast cancer, information about the biology and clinical behaviour of breast cancers conveyed by histological type has not been taken into account. Histological special types of breast cancer account for up to 25% of all invasive breast cancers. Recent studies have provided direct evidence of the existence of genotypic-phenotypic correlations. For instance, secretory carcinomas of the breast consistently harbour the t(12;15) translocation that leads to the formation of the ETV6-NTRK3 fusion gene, adenoid cystic carcinomas consistently display the t(6;9) MYB-NFIB translocation and lobular carcinomas consistently show inactivation of the CDH1 gene through multiple molecular mechanisms. Furthermore, histopathological and molecular analysis of tumours from conditional mouse models has provided direct evidence for the causative role of specific genes in the genesis of specific histological special types of breast cancer. Here we review the associations between the molecular taxonomy of breast cancer and histological special types, discuss the possible origins of the heterogeneity of breast cancer and propose an approach for the identification of novel therapeutic targets based on the study of histological special types of breast cancer.
Molecular alterations in ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast
AbstractDespite recent improvements in the breast cancer mortality rate, breast cancer remains the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in US women. A decreasing trend in mortality rates is caused by advances in early detection and, to a lesser degree, in cancer therapies. With the increased utilization of mammography, one of the earliest detectable breast tumors, ductal carcinoma in situ, has become the most rapidly increasing subset of breast cancers. Contrary to the dramatic improvement in our ability to detect ductal carcinoma in situ, the pathophysiology of this disease is still poorly understood. Many molecular studies have been performed in ductal carcinoma in situ lesions with the aims of identifying genes involved in breast cancer initiation and progression, defining the relation between in situ and invasive carcinomas, and identifying clinically useful markers for breast cancer diagnosis, prognostication, prevention, and treatment.
The safety parameters of the study on intraductal cytotoxic agent delivery to the breast before mastectomy.
AbstractBACKGROUND: Intraductal administration of cytotoxic agents has been shown to inhibit the development of breast cancer in animal models. The object of this study was to demonstrate the safety of intraductal delivery cytotoxic agents in patients prior to mastectomy. This method is hopeful to be developed as a chemoprevention approach in patients with pre-malignant or non-invasive ductal lesions to prevent breast cancer which will be further developed. METHODS: TWO DRUGS, PEGYLATED LIPOSOMAL DOXORUBICIN (PLD) AND CARBOPLATIN WERE ADMINISTERED AT THREE DOSE LEVELS (PLD: 10, 20, 50 mg and carboplatin 60, 120, 300 mg). There were five subjects in each group with 15 subjects treated with each drug once. Venous blood samples were obtained for pharmacokinetic analysis. The breast was removed surgically 2-5 days post administration and the treated ducts were marked to enable identification on pathological evaluation. RESULTS: Intraductal administration was generally well-tolerated with mild, transient breast discomfort. In the carboplatin arm, three women at the 300 mg dose experienced mild nausea and vomiting. In the PLD arm most women had mild erythema and swelling of the breast over the 72 hours following the drug administration. Patients receiving the 50 mg dose experienced local erythema until the time of surgery. Pharmacokinetic analysis showed that carboplatin rapidly entered systemic circulation with an early peak time (Tmax ~30 min) with a corresponding plasma ultrafiltrate area under the curve (AUC) consistent with the Calvert Formula using estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Total plasma doxorubicin had delayed peak concentration times (Tmax >48 hours) with a linear dose response and peak concentrations substantially lower than expected from equivalent intravenous injection dosing. No doxorubicinol metabolite was detected in the plasma. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that cytotoxic drugs can be safely administered into breast ducts with minimal toxicity.
Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy · 2008 · 9 citations
Controversies over the role of radiation therapy for ductal carcinoma<i>in situ</i>
AbstractDuctal carcinoma in situ is a premalignant disease of the breast with a rapidly rising incidence. For women with localized ductal carcinoma in situ, randomized trials have shown that radiation therapy following conservative surgery lowers the relative risk of progression to invasive disease by 60%. Therefore, following conservative surgery, radiation therapy to the breast is generally considered a reasonable standard of care. However, several clinical trials have investigated the safety of conservative surgery alone without radiation for select women with small tumors of low histologic grade excised with widely negative margins. At present, results of these trials are conflicting, and, therefore, radiation therapy is generally recommended following conservative surgery, even for patients with favorable pathologic characteristics.
Ductal adenoma of the breast: mammographic appearances and pathological correlation
AbstractDuctal adenoma of the breast is a little known and only recently described lesion. However, it is an important diagnosis to make since it is benign, despite simulating malignancy on both clinical examination and mammography. A 72-year-old woman was referred to the Breast Unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital, complaining of a feeling of “thickening” within the lateral aspect of the left breast. Clinical examination revealed no discrete mass but there was a slight area of nodularity lateral to the left nipple, which was asymmetrical when compared with the corresponding area on the right.
Disease module: DeepOracle (Open Targets). Structures: RDKit from PubChem SMILES. Literature: retrieved by DeepSearch across 234,678,978 indexed works (targeted per-candidate search), resolved on OpenAlex.
DeCure is a research and publication project, not medical advice and not a treatment. "DeCure for X" describes a research goal, not a claim that a cure exists. Backing a cure is a contribution to fund the research — it is not an investment, and confers no yield, royalty, equity or IP ownership. Papers are published open-access by the DeCure.ai DAO.
