Researchers at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Cancer Center and Yale University have identified two molecular predictors of breast cancer spread or metastasis. This may one day lead to tests of breast cancer tissue that will help physicians determine whether a woman’s breast cancer is likely to spread, or metastasize.
Currently, physicians have no precise way of knowing which women’s breast cancer will later spread. This new research may help doctors avoid use of chemotherapy in women who they identify as statistically unlikely to metastasize. In addition, the research may have identified a new target for future therapeutic drugs to treat and/or prevent the disease.
“Most women diagnosed with breast cancer that has not spread to their lymph nodes would do well in the absence of chemotherapy. But because physicians lack tools to precisely identify those women least likely to relapse, they often over-treat patients”, said Dr Robert Dickson, co-director of the Breast Cancer Program at Lombardi Cancer Center.
ANI, Washington