News Section | Breast Cancer
Tumour make-up changes throughout the course of breast cancer
A Swedish study has found that breast cancer tumours change their hormonal status throughout the course of disease.
The finding is worrying as the decision about the most effective treatment for the patient is usually based only on one biopsy of the primary tumour.
For some patients, biopsy verifications of any relapse will be very important because it may completely change their clinical management, the report said.
“Until now we thought that predictive markers remained stable during the course of the cancer,” said Dr. Linda Lindström, from the Karolinska Institutet Department of Oncology-Pathology, Solna, Stockholm.
“But it is now apparent that these breast tumours markers, which are used to decide the best treatment for the patient, change as the tumour progresses and this significantly affects the way patients respond to particular therapies.
This has important implications for the future management of the disease,” she added.
The researchers now intend to carry out a prospective study in which they will follow a group of breast cancer patients and examine the standard clinical markers throughout their tumour progression.
“With cancer treatments becoming more and more efficacious and targeted to specific groups, it is particularly important that the correct treatment is given throughout the disease,” says Dr. Lindstrom.
“An additional advantage of carrying out regular biopsies would be that they could detect other primary cancers, or benign lesions, which could spare patients inappropriate or unnecessary therapies,” she adds.
The study was recently presented at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress.
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