Found: Gene clue to bespoke cancer care
THE latest breast cancer research could lead to more personalised care for patients and help further understanding of the causes of the disease, scientists have said.
A worldwide study has been hailed as giving a more complete picture of the changes in DNA in breast cancer, providing potential opportunities for new treatments.
Research into 560 breast cancer genomes, or complete genetic codes, turned up five new genes associated with the disease.
The results of the study, published in Nature Communications, provide evidence that breast cancer genomes are “highly individual”, researchers from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute said.
The team looked at genomes in the 556 women and four men and focused on mutations that encourage the disease to grow and the patterns – known as mutational signatures – in each tumour.
They found that women with genes that leave them at a higher risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer have entire genome profiles that are very different to each other and distinct from other breast cancers.
Dr Serena Nik- Zainal, who led the team of researchers, said: “In the future, we’d like to be able to profile individual cancer genomes so that we can identify the treatment most likely to be successful for a woman or man diagnosed with breast cancer. It is a step closer to personalised healthcare for cancer.”
Dr Ewan Birney, from the European Bioinformatics Institute, analysed the sequence of genetic information in the sample genomes.
He said: “This study gave us the first large- scale view of the rest of the genome – uncovering some new reasons why breast cancer arises – and gave us an unexpected way to characterise the types of mutations that happen in certain breast cancers.”
Professor Sir Mike Stratton, director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said discovering gene mutations is “crucial” to understanding the causes of cancer and coming up with better treatments.
He said: “This huge study brings us much closer to a complete description of the changes in DNA in breast cancer and thus to a comprehensive understanding of the causes of the disease and the opportunities for new treatments.”
Men are ignoring cancer symptoms as they are too embarrassed and do not wish to make a fuss, two surveys have suggested.
The Macmillan Cancer Support polls also found that men in “masculine” industries such as building and construction are particularly poor at starting conversations about health.
Of the 985 men questioned in a YouGov poll, 14 per cent said they would put off reporting worrying symptoms, such as a lump or suspicious mole.
Yet more than one in three men ( 38 per cent) admit to having been worried to such an extent that they have been “kept awake at night”.
One in 10 had put off seeing a doctor in the past year for fear their symptoms might be a sign of something serious.