Understanding Genetic Risk

A team of British researchers believe they are on the threshold of discovering exactly why some women are more susceptible to breast cancer than others.

When breast cancer runs in families it is often due to a fault in one of the breast cancer genes - BRCA1 and BRCA2. These women have up to an 80 per cent risk of the disease and often opt for preventative surgery.

However, Dr. Robert Clarke and colleagues from The Paterson Institute for Cancer Research in Manchester found crucial differences between normal breast tissue from women with a BRCA mutation and tissue from women at normal risk. They believe that understanding these differences may eventually lead to preventative drugs as an alternative to surgery.

The difference between the women seems to lie in the way their cells respond to the hormone estrogen and to anti-estrogen drugs, such as tamoxifen, explained Clarke. "When we added estrogen to the breast tissue we expected a bigger response from the BRCA cells - we thought they would grow faster than the normal cells - but this didn't happen."

Instead they found a far more subtle difference in the way other genes were responding to estrogen. "This difference helps us to understand why the risk is greater and might lead to an alternative to surgery for women who have a BRCA mutation."

"It's important to find out which women are at a high risk of breast cancer and why," noted Dr. Lesley Walker of the British Cancer Research Campaign in response to the findings by Clarke's team. "But if we're going to do that, it's equally important that we can offer these women treatment to prevent the disease. There's still a long way to go, but this work brings us closer to drugs or treatments to prevent the disease."

SOURCE:

The Cancer Research Campaign (www.crc.org.uk)

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