Breast Cancer: breast

ScienceDaily (July 19, 2011) — Some of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer are more vulnerable to chemotherapy when it is combined with a new class of anti-cancer agent, researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have shown.

ABT-737 is one of a new class of anti-cancer agents called BH3 mimetics that target and neutralise the so-called Bcl-2 proteins in cancer cells. Bcl-2 proteins act to 'protect' the cells after they have been damaged by chemotherapy drugs, and prevent the cancer cells from dying.
Professors Geoff Lindeman and Jane Visvader, who led the research with colleagues Dr Samantha Oakes and Dr François Vaillant from the institute's Stem Cells and Cancer division, said that the BH3 mimetics showed promise for treating breast cancers, including 'triple negative' cancers. Their research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Triple negative breast cancers are so-called because they test negative for oestrogen, progesterone and HER2 receptors, and cannot be treated with hormone therapy or trastuzumab. They account for up to 20 per cent of all breast cancers and are typically aggressive with a poor prognosis.
Dr Lindeman said that early results suggest navitoclax (an orally-available BH3 mimetic) could provide new hope for treating some breast cancers that are not candidates for other currently available treatments.
"ABT-737 targets proteins from the Bcl-2 family, which are found at high levels in up to 70 per cent of breast cancers," Dr Lindeman said. "We have shown that breast tumours that have high levels of Bcl-2 respond well to treatment with ABT-737 when used in combination with a conventional chemotherapy drug."
ABT-737 and navitoclax were discovered by Abbott scientists and are based on the discovery made at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in the 1980s that Bcl-2 is a 'pro-survival' protein responsible for preventing cell death in healthy and diseased cells. ABT-737 and navitoclax are not yet available for patient treatment, but navitoclax is currently in phase II clinical trials to establish its efficacy in treating some types of leukemia and lymphoma. Navitoclax is being jointly developed by Abbott and Genentech, Inc.
Dr Visvader said combined treatment with ABT-737 and docetaxel (a commonly used chemotherapy drug for treating breast cancer) in mice transplanted with human breast cancer cells improved tumour response and survival rates, when compared to docetaxel as a single agent. ABT-737 alone was not effective in treating cancers with high levels of Bcl-2, nor was it effective in treating cancers that did not express Bcl-2.
"The research suggests that these agents make the cancer cells more vulnerable to chemotherapy," Dr Visvader said. "We are particularly excited that the research shows a good response in Bcl-2-expressing breast cancer, including basal-like breast cancer, which is often the most aggressive and hardest to treat."
Dr Lindeman said the research could lead to the development of new treatment regimens that make resistant and difficult-to-treat breast cancers more vulnerable to conventional chemotherapy treatments. "We have had a good result in pre-clinical models of disease, but we are still a way off this being used in humans," Dr Lindeman, who is also an oncologist at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, said. "We hope that these results could see a clinical trial of navitoclax for treating breast cancer with high Bcl-2 levels within the next few years."
The project was supported by the Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium through the Victorian Cancer Agency, the National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Cancer Research Foundation and the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Breast cancer samples were provided with the support of the Victorian Cancer Biobank.

Source : ScienceDaily

Check-up: One in nine women will now suffer breast cancer at some stage in their life.

Daily Mail report. Breast cancer cases have hit "frightening" levels and our modern lifestyle and prosperity may be to blame.

Figures today show an 80 per cent increase since 1971 with one in nine women now developing the disease.

Factors leading to the rise include obesity, smaller family size, less breastfeeding as more women go out to work, earlier periods and later menopause.

Increasing use of HRT and growing alcohol consumption are also cited. The Pill has been linked to some cases but its use cannot account for the startling increase.

Professor Sir Richard Peto said: "Breast cancer is roughly a disease of prosperity." The charity Breast Cancer UK is demanding action to halt the rise.

"We believe women have a right to know these frightening statistics and should be asking the Government what it is doing to tackle the causes and prevention of the disease," said a spokeswoman.

A total of 36,939 women were diagnosed in England in 2004, an 81 per cent increase in incidence of the cancer since 1971, after statistical adjustment for the ageing of the population.

Over the year, 41,000 cases were diagnosed in the UK.

Breast cancer is the commonest cancer in the UK, even though it principally affects only women. There are a few hundred cases each year in men.

The age-standardised incidence in 2004 was 120.8 per 100,000 population, the highest figure on record, up from 66.9 in 1971. The figures are in Cancer Registrations, the annual statistical report issued by the Office for National Statistics.

Cancer is usually a disease of the elderly and older age groups. But breast cancer is increasing in every age group.

Among those aged 20 to 34, the disease, though rare, increased by 50 per cent in the three decades from 1971 to 2001. In the 45 to 49 age group it rose by 41 per cent over the same period.

The biggest increases have been in the 50 to 64 age group, in which the incidence has more than doubled after introduction of breast-screening which detects tumours too small to be picked up by a doctor in a clinical examination.

Professor Peto, Britain's foremost cancer epidemiologist, of Oxford University, said: "There has been a slow drift upwards since the 1950s, basically due to society becoming more prosperous. Breast cancer is roughly a disease of prosperity.

"The rise was much more rapid in Spain because their rate of [social] progress was quicker."

He added: "Having fewer children before the age of 30, early first periods, late menopause and being obese or overweight after menopause are all factors behind the increase."

Ruth Yates, at Cancer Research UK, said it was difficult to offer advice to women on how to avoid the disease because there are so many factors.

She said there was not just one thing women can do although not smoking, better diet and drinking less will have an impact.