Even after the latest breast cancer drugs have hugely improved the rates of survival, there are certain types of breast tumours that cannot be treated with the targeted drugs.

These difficult to treat breast cancer victims have a ray of hope in the leukaemia research, which could possibly pave the way for new drugs.

Researchers in Glasgow have found that a faulty piece of DNA which causes leukaemia also has a role in some tumours and could help in research for new drugs. The RUNX1 gene, which is one of the most commonly altered genes in leukaemia, has been found to be active in the most deadly of triple negative breast cancers.

While oestrogen or progesterone positive breast cancers can be treated with hormone therapies such as Tamoxifen, Herceptin, works only on those tumours which are HER2-positive. But triple negative cancers are those that can only be treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery.

It is estimated that around one in five breast cancers is "triple negative" one. The study published in PLoS One found that tests on 483 triple negative breast cancers showed patients testing positive for RUNX1 were four times more likely to die as a result of the cancer than those without it.

According to one of the researchers, Dr Karen Blyth, "this study opens up the exciting possibility of using it [RUNX1] as a new target for treatments."

This means that the drugs under development that target leukemia can now be tested in case of difficult to treat breast cancers too. But experts warn that more research is necessary to substantiate the linkage.