Test boost for breast cancer fight
Published: August 9, 2005
Doctors may in future use a genetic test to find out how individual patients with breast cancer will respond to chemotherapy drugs.
Researchers who analysed genes in the tumours of breast cancer patients said they could tell which were likely to improve after drug treatment.
By looking at less than 60 genes, it was possible to make the prediction in all cases of partial and nearly three-quarters of cases of complete remission.
he German scientists were led by Olga Modlich from the University of Dusseldorf.
They looked at samples of breast tissue from five healthy individuals and tumour tissue from 56 breast cancer patients.
A total of 57 “predictor” genes were identified in the tumours.
Of these, 31 were associated with a positive response to pre-operative systemic chemotherapy (PST) and 26 with a poor response.
The genes were then used to predict the outcome of PST in a group of 27 breast cancer patients.
The researchers wrote in the Journal of Translational Medicine: “The identification of molecular markers predictive of patients’ responsiveness to treatment is becoming a central focus of research.”
They described the ability to predict response to chemotherapy in advance as a “powerful tool” in the treatment of breast cancer.
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