New test 'accurately' spots the most deadly forms of breast cancer BEFORE they spread
Published 26 Feb 2016
A new test for breast cancer can accurately spot the most aggressive tumours before they spread.
Scientists have created a technique that identifies which cancers are most likely to grow aggressively, enabling them to take action to stop the spread.
According to initial trials of the test, developed by the Institute of Cancer Research in London, doctors were able to spot women at the highest risk of dying from their disease.
The test could now be used to tailor treatment for women at the highest risk.
Scientists modified methods initially developed by wildlife experts to identify ecological diversity in the natural world.
They adapted the ecologists’ computer algorithm to use it on tumour samples.
Tumours with a greater diversity of types of cell tend to be the most aggressive, and most likely to eventually become fatal.
The cancer team found that they could use the naturalists’ approach to give each tumour a ‘diversity score’ - which they showed was an accurate predictor of how dangerous it would become.
In a trial of 1,000 women, they found that those whose tumours had the highest diversity score were three times more likely to die within three five than those with the lowest score.
According to results published in the journal PLOS Medicine, at-risk women had just a 16 per cent of surviving five years, compared to 50 per cent for those with the most stable tumours.
Most forms of cancer become far more dangerous once the disease spreads through the body, creating secondary tumours.
Primary breast cancer, for example, is relatively easy to treat at an early stage because it can be simply removed with surgery and treated with chemotherapy.
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