Drug could prevent breast cancer for women with ‘Jolie gene’

PRESCRIBING existing drugs to healthy women who carry a gene that makes them more likely to develop breast cancer could prevent them from developing the disease, a Cambridge study suggests.

Women with faulty versions of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, the same type the actress Angelina Jolie has, have about a 70 per cent risk of developing breast cancer, Cancer Research UK estimates.

Some women opt for a mastectomy to lower the risk by removing the breasts.

Jolie underwent the procedure in 2013 when, aged 37, she found out she had the faulty BRCA1 gene. Cambridge scientists analysed the genetics of more than 800,000 cells taken from the donated breast tissue of 55 women who were undergoing various breast operations.

They identified that in healthy women with the faulty BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, there are immune cells which are “exhausted” and incapable of clearing out cancerous cells.

The results, published in Nature Genetics, are the first time exhausted immune cells have been seen in individuals other than late-stage cancer patients. Researchers hope that this discovery could allow for immunotherapy drugs already in use for cancer treatment to be given preventatively to combat the depleted immune system.

This could stave off cancer in highrisk women and also reduce the need for mastectomies, which are highly invasive and emotionally stressful.

“Our results suggest that in carriers of BRCA mutations, the immune system is failing to kill off damaged breast cells – which in turn seem to be working to keep these immune cells at bay,” said Prof Walid Khaled, senior author of the report from the University of Cambridge.

“We’re very excited about this discovery, because it opens up potential for a preventative treatment other than surgery for carriers of BRCA breast cancer gene mutations.”

He added that nobody has previously considered using cancer drugs preventatively because they did not know the faulty immune cells were present before cancers developed.