A new discovery by the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory could help point toward the first effective therapy for triple-negative breast cancer.

Triple-negative breast cancer accounts for 10 to 15% of all breast cancer cases. It disproportionately affects younger and African American women, according to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

A group from the lab researched the role of RNAs called long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in cancer formation. They discovered that a rarely studied lncRNA, previously implicated in gastric cancer, plays a part in triple-negative breast cancer, too.