Targeting Cystine Addiction Suppresses Breast Cancer Lung Metastasis.

Targeting cystine addiction reduces lung metastasis in MYC-driven breast cancer by exploiting a unique metabolic vulnerability.

• Why it matters: Metastatic disease causes most cancer deaths, and understanding specific metabolic adaptations during metastasis can reveal new therapeutic targets to improve patient outcomes.
• What they did: Researchers used in vivo and ex vivo models, along with metabolomics, imaging, and single-cell RNA sequencing, to identify increased glutathione synthesis driven by cystine uptake in lung metastases.
• The result: Blocking cystine/cysteine with cyst(e)inase, especially combined with radiotherapy, significantly decreased metastatic burden, highlighting a promising strategy to target metastatic cells' metabolic dependencies.