Early Test for Chemotherapy Benefit
The research from the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) is published today in the journal, Clinical Cancer Research.
UK scientists have developed a 24 hour test to check whether the most commonly used chemotherapy treatment will benefit a breast cancer patient.
Currently patients are given a full 12-week course of chemotherapy before doctors know how well they have responded.
Breakthrough Breast Cancer says 46,000 women and 300 men are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK each year. The scientists say the test could identify which of them will benefit from anthracycline chemotherapy.
One in nine women in the UK will develop breast cancer at some point in their lifetime. More than 1,000 women die of breast cancer every month in the UK.
The study
The researchers looked at the protein RAD51, which has a big role in DNA repair.
They studied 68 breast cancer patients and found that if the protein did not work in cancer cells the patients were much more likely to respond to treatment.
If the DNA repair process was working in the tumour they would probably not respond to the treatment.
The researchers say this is the first time this method has been shown in a clinical setting and could have important implications for patients.
If a patient doesn’t respond to anthracycline based chemotherapy they could be given other chemotherapy treatments or hormone therapies, such as tamoxifen.
‘Spared unnecessary side effects’
The study’s lead author Dr Nicholas Turner says in a statement: “It would make a big difference to patients, who could be moved onto other treatment options sooner – and spared unnecessary side effects.”
However, Turner cautions, “This test is at an early stage of development and now needs to be confirmed in larger studies to see if it can be effective.”
The test also identifies patients who may benefit from PARP inhibitors, a new type of cancer treatment. Studies suggest that up to 30% of breast cancer patients could be treated this way, although the medications are still in clinical trials and not yet licensed for use.
SOURCES:
Breakthrough Breast Cancer