Researchers have found changes in the degrees of particular proteins in people’s blood as much as two years before they were diagnosed with breast cancer.

The study, presented today (Wednesday) on the thirteenth European Breast Cancer Conference, could form the premise of blood testing for individuals with a genetic predisposition or a family history of breast cancer to make sure the disease is diagnosed early when the possibilities of survival are best.

The findings, presented by Ms Sophie Hagenaars from Leiden University Medical Center in The Netherlands, are from the Trial Early Serum Test Breast cancer (TESTBREAST) study.

The TESTBREAST study was initiated in 2011 by Professor Rob Tollenaar and Dr Wilma Mesker, and currently includes 1174 women who’re at a high risk of breast cancer, on account of their family history or because they carry gene variants which might be known to boost their breast cancer risk. The ladies are being cared for at nine hospitals across The Netherlands where they’re offered breast screening at a younger age and more recurrently than the remainder of the Dutch population who’ve a mean risk of breast cancer.

The study has been running for ten years and the ladies collaborating have been giving blood samples at the very least yearly after they go for screening. Any who develop breast cancer also give samples on the time of diagnosis.

Researchers used a well-established technique called mass spectrometry to investigate the degrees of various proteins in the ladies’s blood. They looked each for variation between different women and changes that emerge in individual women over time.

Thus far, the researchers have made detailed analyses of 30 blood samples taken over time from three women who’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer and three women who haven’t developed breast cancer, and located distinct differences between the ladies over time. This has revealed a set of six proteins that were at higher or lower levels one to 2 years prior to diagnosis.

These proteins could form the premise for a blood test for early detection of breast cancer in women at the next risk. It is vital to notice that we found more variation within the protein levels within the blood samples between women, in comparison with over time inside the same woman who developed breast cancer. This shows that testing should probably be based each on proteins that differ between women with and without breast cancer and on proteins that alter in a person person over time.”

Ms Sophie Hagenaars, Leiden University Medical Center

The researchers will now validate their findings in a bigger group of ladies with and without breast cancer collaborating within the TESTBREAST study and in women collaborating in other high-risk breast cancer research studies. Ms Hagenaars added: “If further research validates our findings, this testing may very well be used as an add-on to existing screening techniques. Blood tests are relatively easy and never particularly painful for most individuals, so people may very well be offered screening as often as needed.”

Dr Laura Biganzoli is Co-Chair of the European Breast Cancer Conference and Director of the Breast Centre at Santo Stefano Hospital, Prato, Italy, and was not involved within the research. She said: “Women at a high risk of developing breast cancer participate in screening programmes at fixed time-points. If this research ultimately ends in a blood test for individuals with a high risk of breast cancer, that might guide personalised screening and help to diagnose breast cancer on the earliest possible stage.”

Source:

European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer