UK research finds clues to breast cancer relapse in genetic mutations

A UK research team has found genetic mutations as clues to breast cancer relapse, saying that genetic variances could tell whether breast cancer is likely to relapse after treatment.

The research was presented at the European Cancer Congress (ECC) here on Friday by Dr Lucy Yates, leader of the team from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute at the University of Cambridge.

While most breast cancer patients are able to be successfully treated, about one in five will see a relapse of the disease following treatment, occurring either locally in the same place as the first tumor, or elsewhere in body.

The team has studied 1,000 women with breast cancer including 161 cases of relapse. It compared primary and secondary cancers and found any noticeable genetic differences and mutations in secondary cancers, which were relatively uncommon in those appearing for the first time.

Yates said patterns found show that some primary cancers appear to show a predisposition toward a relapse and are potential targets for therapies which include taking regular tissue samples from cancers to show changes in the progression of the disease and to target its particular genetic mutation.

New developments mean this can also be analyzed via blood samples, on which it is much simpler to conduct tissue biopsies, Yates said.

He also said a larger dataset for the study, along with more work, is still required. The team hopes that eventually the likelihood of a relapse will be determined upon diagnosis of an individual case, and a personalized therapy will then be offered to prevent it, he added. Endi