New Methods In The Study Of Breast Cancer

New Methods In The Study Of Breast Cancer.
An exploratory blood try could help show whether women with advanced breast cancer are responding to treatment, a preparation study suggests. The test detects abnormal DNA from tumor cells circulating in the blood. And the unique findings, reported in the March 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, implication that it could outperform existing blood tests at gauging some women's answer to treatment for metastatic breast cancer. That's an advanced form of breast cancer, where tumors have bounds to other parts of the body - most often the bones, lungs, liver or brain.

There is no cure, but chemotherapy, hormonal group therapy or other treatments can slow disease progression and ease symptoms. The sooner doctors can recount whether the treatment is working, the better. That helps women avoid the school effects of an ineffective therapy, and may enable them to switch to a better one.

Right now, doctors monitor metastatic heart of hearts cancer with the help of imaging tests, such as CT scans. They may also use certain blood tests - including one that detects tumor cells floating in the bloodstream, and one that measures a tumor "marker" called CA 15-3.

But imaging does not discriminate the sound story, and it can expose women to significant doses of radiation. The blood tests also have limitations and are not routinely used. "Practically speaking, there's a whopping prerequisite for novel methods" of monitoring women, said Dr Yuan Yuan, an aid professor of medical oncology at City of Hope cancer center in Duarte, Calif.

For the untrained study, researchers at the University of Cambridge in England took blood samples from 30 women being treated for metastatic teat cancer and having standard imaging tests. They found that the tumor DNA check performed better than either the CA 15-3 or the tumor cell prove when it came to estimating the women's treatment response. Of 20 women the researchers were able to follow for more than 100 days, 19 showed cancer chain on their CT scans.

And 17 of them had shown rising tumor DNA levels. In contrast, only seven had a rising handful of tumor cells, while nine had an increase in CA 15-3 levels. For 10 of those 19 women, tumor DNA was on the go up an general of five months before CT scans showed their cancer was progressing. "The take-home message is that circulating tumor DNA is a better monitoring biomarker than the existing Food and Drug Administration-approved ones," said elder researcher Dr Carlos Caldas.

It all suggests that the evaluate could help in monitoring women's care response who was not involved in the study. But while she said the findings are "exciting," she also stressed that a lot more magnum opus needs to be done. "This is nowhere near being ready for clinical practice. But this is one direction we're heading in".

There are other tests being developed for monitoring women with chest cancer. One is a investigation that looks for abnormalities in DNA "copy number". A recent preliminary study found that this close might help predict some women's risk of a breast cancer recurrence.

And researchers are still studying existing tests to determine how they can best be used. The blood test that detects tumor cells - sold in the United States as the CellSearch technique - can be used to help monitor women in therapy for metastatic breast cancer. In general, a higher number of tumor cells means a quicker progression.

But for now, skilful guidelines do not recommend that doctors routinely use the test because its basic usefulness is still unclear, said Dr Anthony Lucci, a surgical oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The original findings suggest that the tumor DNA study is more sensitive than the existing tumor cell test who was not involved in the research.

He said that in the future, it might be reassuring in monitoring women with metastatic cancer or in helping to spot a breast cancer recurrence earlier. Earlier detection of recurrences is the big hope, said Dr Jorge Reis-Filho, an attending pathologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. "If changes in DNA happen before changes are seen in imaging that could remedy us be more proactive in treatment". But, Reis-Filho stressed, that's "crystal-ball gazing" for now.

Lucci said any real-world use of tumor DNA testing is a protracted mode off. "Number one, we beggary larger studies to support these findings". But beyond that, researchers destitution to figure out how to do such DNA testing in a simpler, cheaper way. "Currently, this would be distance too expensive and time-consuming" braiding. Only some academic cancer centers would have the resources to do this kind of testing as it stands.