As I’m sure most of us already know, October is Breast Cancer awareness month. So it seems a good time to take a look at what’s happening in breast cancer research.
As it turns out there are some interesting developments with respect to disease prevention, as well as treatment. I must just add, that these studies by no means represent the extent of the research underway in breast cancer. There are thousands of people engaged in breast cancer research all over the world. These are just three studies that were made public this month.
The first study, published in the October issue of Cancer Research, suggests that women with breast cancer may benefit from taking dietary calcium because it could prevent or reduce the risk for the cancer spreading to the bone. Approximately 70% of women with advanced breast cancer will subsequently develop secondary tumors in the bone. Researchers at the ANZAC Research Institute in Concord, Australia, found that mice with metastatic breast cancer who were deficient in calcium tended to have increased risk for bone involvement. The researchers compared the effects of a low- and high-calcium diet in the mice, and they found a significantly higher increase in cancerous cells and the total proportion of bone that had been penetrated in mice with low dietary calcium. However, while this provides yet another reason to take vitamin D and calcium every day, the researchers warn that further studies are needed. But, if dietary calcium does reduce the risk for bone metastasis, then, the researchers suggest, vitamin D and or calcium could be added to treatment regimens.
The second study, also published in the October issue of Cancer Research, reports that fetal cells acquired by women from their babies during pregnancy may help reduce the risk for breast cancer in those women. This is interesting because there does appear to be a link between a reduced risk for breast cancer and childbirth. The researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington found that fetal microchimerism as it’s called, may provide benefit by essentially putting the mother’s immune system on alert for malignant, or cancerous cells to destroy. Fetal microchimerism refers to the ability of cells growing in a fetus to take up long-term residence within the mother.
The researchers tested their theory in a small study – 82 women, 35 of whom had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Nearly two thirds of the women had given birth, and more than half had at least one son, and this is relevant because the researchers took blood samples from each woman then screened those samples for male DNA. The researchers did this because it’s relatively easy to detect the male Y chromosome within the mother’s (being female) blood sample. What did they find? Only 14% of the women with breast cancer had male DNA in their bloodstream, compared with 43% of the women who did not have breast cancer. So nearly half the women who did not have breast cancer had evidence of fetal microchimerism.
Okay, so what exactly does this mean for you and I? Well, the researchers believe that if the fetal microchimerism does indeed offer some innate protection against breast cancer then it may be possible to identify a way in which it could be used to prevent breast cancer. By the way, doctors have treated a number of different cancers by transplanting cells from one person to another.
And finally, some interesting news from researchers at the University of Michigan Health System, the Cancer and Leukemia Group B, and the Breast Cancer Intergroup of North America: it appears that it may soon be possible to target chemotherapy for breast cancer so that women only receive therapy that may provide benefit for their particular type of disease. This means that many women will be spared the serious and often debilitating side effects of a chemotherapy that may not work for them.
In a nutshell, the researchers found that women whose breast cancer expressed the protein HER-2 did not benefit from Taxol chemotherapy. Approximately 15%- 25% of breast cancers are HER-2 positive, and as many as three quarters are estrogen receptor positive. The researchers took tissue samples from 1500 women and examined them to see if adding Taxol after four cycles of adriamycin and cytoxan— what is called AC chemotherapy —worked. While all the women received four cycles of AC, only half then went on to receive Taxol. The results showed no benefit associated with adding Taxol in women with estrogen receptor positive, HER-2 negative disease. Of note, that was more than half the women on the study.
Now, again, these findings are not, as the saying goes, ready for prime time. And the researchers are adamant that existing treatment protocols not be changed – yet, and that women currently receiving AC + Taxol chemotherapy do not have their chemotherapy regimens altered. What this study does show, however, is that doctors may soon be able to consider both HER-2 and estrogen receptor status when determining the best course of treatment for their patients. In other words, tailor the treatment to fit the patient. And that has to be a good thing.
While these three studies do not offer any immediate new treatments or preventative measures, they do represent the hope, optimism and hard work that are the hallmarks of breast cancer research. Overall, terrific advances have been made in the past decade or so in the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of this disease, such that the number of women dying from breast cancer has been greatly reduced. So it’s important to remember, especially this month, that every little step counts.
And by the way – that includes getting screened.
Tips for reducing your risk for breast cancer: