Breast cancer drugs could save women like Angelina from surgery
WOMEN with the same faulty gene as Hollywood star Angelina Jolie could avoid preventative breast cancer surgery by taking drugs that are already available, research has suggested.
Around one in every 1,000 with a BRCA mutation have a higher risk of breast and ovarian cancer.
Many, including actress and filmmaker Angelina, 48, opt for preventative treatment such as mastectomy – breast removal.
But experts believe drugs given to those in the late stages of cancer could stop healthy people from developing the disease.
A Cambridge University team found immune cells in the breast tissue of healthy women with faulty BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes showed signs of a malfunction known as exhaustion – usually found in late-stage tumours.
It suggests the immune cells cannot clear out damaged ones, which eventually leads to cancer.
Senior research author Professor Walid Khaled said: “We’re very excited about this discovery because it opens up potential for a preventative treatment other than surgery for carriers of BRCA gene mutations.
“Drugs already exist that can overcome this block in immune cell function, but so far they’ve only been approved for late-stage disease. No one has really considmutation ered using them in a preventative way before.”
Cancer Research UK has given researchers a grant to test the method in mice. A pilot clinical trial could then be carried out in women with the gene mutations.
The NHS says 65 to 85 out of 100 women with a BRCA1 gene will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. Between 40 and 63 will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Forty to 85 out of 100 women with BRCA2 will develop breast cancer.
Prof Khaled said: “The best way to prevent breast cancer is to really understand how it develops in the first place. Then we can identify these early changes and intervene.
“Late-stage breast cancer tends to be very unpredictable and hard to manage. As we make better and better drugs, the tumours just seem to find a way around it.”
The Cambridge team’s discovery, published in Nature Genetics, was made while it was creating a catalogue of human breast cells.
Scientists used samples from Breast Cancer Now’s tissue bank.
Dr Simon Vincent, from the charity, said: “While further research is needed, these findings could be a significant step forward in our care and treatment of people with an increased risk of developing breast cancer.”
‘Discovery could be a significant step forward’