breast cancer

Breast cancer: Scientists hail ‘milestone’ genetic find

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Scientists say they now have a near-perfect picture of the genetic events that cause breast cancer.

The study, published in Nature, has been described as a “milestone” moment that could help unlock new ways of treating and preventing the disease.

The largest study of its kind unpicked practically all the errors that cause healthy breast tissue to go rogue.

Cancer Research UK said the findings were an important stepping-stone to new drugs for treating cancer.

To understand the causes of the disease, scientists have to understand what goes wrong in our DNA that makes healthy tissue turn cancerous.

The international team looked at all 3 billion letters of people’s genetic code – their entire blueprint of life – in 560 breast cancers.

They uncovered 93 sets of instructions, or genes, that if mutated, can cause tumours. Some have been discovered before, but scientists expect this to be the definitive list, barring a few rare mutations.

 

Read at BBC

A pair of drugs can dramatically shrink and eliminate some breast cancers in just 11 days

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A pair of drugs can dramatically shrink and eliminate some breast cancers in just 11 days, UK doctors have shown.

They said the “surprise” findings, reported at the European Breast Cancer Conference, could mean some women no longer need chemotherapy.

The drugs, tested on 257 women, target a specific weakness found in one-in-ten breast cancers.

Experts said the findings were a “stepping stone” to tailored cancer care.

The doctors leading the trial had not expected or even intended to achieve such striking results.

They were investigating how drugs changed cancers in the short window between a tumour being diagnosed and the operation to remove it.

But by the time surgeons came to operate, there was no sign of cancer in some patients.

Prof Judith Bliss, from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, said the impact was “dramatic”.

She told the BBC News website: “We were particularly surprised by these findings as this was a short-term trial.

“It became apparent some had a complete response. It’s absolutely intriguing, it is so fast.”

 

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Drug could help slow half of breast cancers, study suggests

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A cheap and safe drug could help half of women with breast cancer to live longer, scientists suggest.

Their study, published in Nature, is in its early stages, but hints that the hormone progesterone could be used to slow the growth of some tumours.

The UK and Australian researchers say the findings are “very significant” and they are planning clinical trials.

Cancer Research UK said the study was “highly significant” and could help thousands of women.

Hormones play a huge role in breast cancer.

They can make a cancerous cell divide by hooking up with “hormone receptors” on the surface of a cancer.

One of the most successful breast cancer drugs, tamoxifen, bungs up the oestrogen receptor.

 

Link to article on BBC

Breast cancers can change bone to make it easier to spread.

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Breast cancers can manipulate the structure of bone to make it easier to spread there, a study has found.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield said the tumours were effectively “fertilising” the bone to help themselves grow.

The study, in the journal Nature, said it may be possible to protect bone from a tumour’s nefarious influence and consequently stop the cancer’s spread.

Cancer charities said this opened up “a whole new avenue for research”.

Around 85% of breast cancers that spread around the body end up in bone, at which point the cancer is difficult to treat and more deadly.

 

Full Story at BBC

New Genetic Tests for Breast Cancer Hold Promise

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A Silicon Valley start-up with some big-name backers is threatening to upend genetic screening for breast andovarian cancer by offering a test on a sample of saliva that is so inexpensive that most women could get it.

At the same time, the nation’s two largest clinical laboratories, Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, normally bitter rivals, are joining with French researchers to pool their data to better interpret mutations in the two mainbreast cancer risk genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2. Other companies and laboratories are being invited to join the effort, called BRCA Share.

Full story on NYT

Night light exposure could make breast cancer tumors tamoxifen resistant

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Tamoxifen is an estrogen-blocking medication typically used to treat breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. But new research conducted in rats suggests exposure to dim light at night – as little as that coming in a window from a street light – suppresses melatonin production, making tumors resistant to the drug.
dim indoor lamp
Researchers found that exposure to dim light at night results in breast cancer tumors becoming resistant to tamoxifen.

The study, led by Prof. Steven M. Hill of Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, LA, is published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

“Our levels of melatonin are not determined by sleep, as many people think,” explains Prof. Hill. “It is actually the darkness that is important. During the night, if you sleep in a brightly lit room, your melatonin levels may be inhibited; however, if you are in the dark but cannot sleep, your melatonin levels will rise normally.”

He and his team note that disruption of circadian rhythms by night shift work or disturbed sleep could result in an increased risk of breast cancer and other diseases. For patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, Prof. Hill adds that tamoxifen resistance “is a growing problem.”

Read full article at MNT

Smoking and breast cancer gene combine ‘to raise risk’

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Smoking and the breast cancer risk gene BRCA2 combine to “enormously” increase the chance of developing lung cancer, a study of 27,000 people has suggested.

The research, published in the journal Nature, found the gene could double the likelihood of getting lung cancer.

And some men and women faced a far greater risk, a team at the Institute of Cancer Research in London said.

Cancer Research UK suggested drugs targeted at breast cancer may work in some lung cancers.

The links between variants of the BRCA genes and breast cancer are well established – a diagnosis led Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie to have a preventative double mastectomy – but it has also been linked with an increased risk of other cancers affecting women such as ovarian cancer and prostate cancer in men.

 

BBC