Six types of breast cancer found
Monday, 01 Oct 2007 17:13
The finding could help doctors identify the type of cancer
Science In Focus
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Scientists have identified six different types of breast cancer that they claim could impact on patients' long-term survival and response to treatment.
Each class of cancer is distinguishable by the different proteins present in the cancer tissue and is associated with different survival rates.
Presenting the findings at the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) Cancer Conference in Birmingham this afternoon, researchers said the finding could contribute to doctors being able to give more accurate prognoses for breast cancer patients by classifying their cancer.
It is also hoped it could lead to more specialised treatments.
A collaborative team of researchers from a number of UK universities studied tissue samples from more than 1,000 breast cancer patients.
Of the six classes identified, two were associated with longer survival rates and two with significantly shorter rates.
The researchers said that only 60 per cent of breast cancer cases fitted perfectly into one of the six classes and they are currently verifying the validity of their finding with a larger sample of tissues.
Senior researcher Dr Andy Green said: "Classifying cases of breast cancer in this way has important implications for the future diagnosis and treatment of the disease.
"Knowing what class of breast cancer a patient has will help doctors to decide on the best treatments specific to that patient - particularly as the trend towards customised therapeutics continues."
Commenting on the study, Dr Kat Arney, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "Breast cancer is not just one disease, and different types of breast cancer need different treatments.
"In the future, this classification strategy may help doctors to make better decisions about how to treat women, so everyone gets the best possible therapy. There's still more work to be done, as there are more breast cancers that don't fit into these six categories, but this is an important step along the road to more effective treatments."