Researchers may have a new way to identify a particularly deadly form of breast cancer.

Researchers from Dartmouth Medical School said in a news release that a protein called nestin can indicate basal epithelial tumors, which are similar to stem cells.

"Patients with this type of breast cancer are at high risk for recurrence," said professor James DiRenzo. "Ideally, a marker like nestin would enable clinicians to monitor these patients through frequent tests of a biomarker and, in doing so, detect the cancer before it has a chance to come back."

The release said this type of cancer is harder to diagnose and treat than other types of breast cancer, DiRenzo said.

The basal epithelial breast cancer subtype represents 17 to 37 percent of all breast cancers and is more common in premenopausal black women than in other demographic groups.

This type has an early age of onset and a very short time between treatment and relapse.

Nestin is a long filamentous protein found in adult stem cells in the central nervous system. While scientists do not know its exact function, the protein is thought to have a role in stabilizing the structure of adult stem cells as they regenerate and divide into daughter cells.

According to the DiRenzo, another important next step will be finding an efficient means of detecting nestin in a clinical screening setting, though he said a blood test would likely not be sufficient. But DiRenzo said he believes that a non-invasive test that collects samples from mammary ducts may enable the development of a screening tool for at-risk patients.