Detecting calcium deposits in the breast could help doctors diagnose breast cancer more quickly and effectively, researchers have revealed.
A study, published in the British Journal of Cancer this week, has revealed for the first time that deposits from benign tissue were more likely to have higher carbonate content than those from malignant deposits.
It also showed a direct link between the chemical characteristics of the calcium deposits and the grade of the breast cancer.
Researchers used infrared light to measure the chemical make-up of 236 deposits – known as breast calcifications – from 110 patients.
Professor Nicholas Stone, one of the authors of the study who is based at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK, said: “Testing calcifications with light would be a non-invasive method that could help doctors determine whether a woman has any aggressive tumours in her breasts alongside having a mammogram.
“This could help many thousands of women avoid the anxiety of having a biopsy and then waiting for the result.”
There is scope for developing a test for calcium deposits that could help doctors establish from screening if a tumour is benign without further examinations like a biopsy. In malignant cases, the test could also give an early indication of how advanced the cancer is.
Sara Hiom, of Cancer Research UK, said: “These results suggest that developing a test for calcifications could further improve screening by providing a more detailed diagnosis about the tumour and potentially avoiding the need for biopsies in some cases.”
* Women who have the serpin 3 molecule in their breast cancer cells could be treated with a more aggressive form of chemotherapy, which could increase their chances of survival. Serpin 3 appears to protect cancerous cells, preventing them from being killed off by standard anthracycline-based drugs, researchers at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, have found.
Announcing the results of the research at the British Breast Cancer Research Conference in Nottingham this week, Dr Elaina Collie-Duguid said: “This is a major finding which could ultimately increase the survival rates from breast cancer by allowing identification of the type of chemotherapy which is likely to be most effective in individual patients.”
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