Gene test to monitor BRCA disease treatment
Thursday November 2nd, 2017
A new blood test can monitor changes to cancer-causing genes during treatment for breast and ovarian disease, researchers announced today.
The “highly
sensitive” test detects changes in BRCA1 and
BRCA2 when the cancer becomes resistant to platinum chemotherapy or
PARP inhibitors, according to scientists at the Institute of Cancer
Research, London, UK.
This would mean treatment could be changed at an early stage, helping to prevent cancer progression, the developers say.
The test has been developed with the help of 19 women with ovarian cancer and five with breast cancer.
The research also gave an indication of the extent of genetic changes that can occur during treatment. Six women developed resistance mutations – and in four cases there was more than one change.
The findings are reported today in Clinical Cancer Research.
Researcher Professor Nicholas Turner, an oncologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital, said: “With this new liquid biopsy, we picked up changes in tumour DNA that could give us early warning if a woman’s cancer is likely to stop responding to treatment.
“Next, we aim to further evaluate the blood test as part of a large clinical trial. Our study also opens up further research into how to stop cancer evolving to become resistant to targeted drugs.
“In the future, this liquid biopsy could help us pick out those women with breast or ovarian cancer who are most likely to benefit from targeted therapy, and offer alternative treatment to women as soon as they develop drug resistance.”
Institute chief executive Professor Paul Workman said: “Precision medicine is now delivering real benefits for many women with breast and ovarian cancer – but drug resistance is still an important challenge.
“The DNA changes identified with this new liquid biopsy test could help us understand how cancer evolves to become resistant to treatment.”
Breast Cancer Now chief executive Baroness Delyth Morgan said the findings were “highly exciting.”
Clinical Cancer Research 2 November 2017
Tags: Cancer | Genetics | UK News | Women's Health & Gynaecology
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