Breast Cancer Research on the Front Lines
Results from several breast cancer-related research studies were presented at the recent "Era of Hope" meeting of the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program.
Among the topics presented was information on a hand-held imaging device designed for use at home in detecting breast cancer in its early stages, says a new report at the meeting.
Researchers say the device, which appears to be effective, might be available commercially to women within the next few years.
If so, the new device, tentatively called "iFind," will make early detection of breast cancer more likely, says creator Britton Chance, Ph.D., professor emeritus of radiology, biophysics, and biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania.
Another expert, Dr. Juri Gelovani of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, called the new technology "encouraging," but cautions that a larger trial must be conducted before it could be recommended for wider use.
About the size of a deck of cards, iFind uses near-infrared light to measure how much blood is flowing in different locations in the breast, Dr. Chance explains. The logic behind the device is that tumors require new blood vessels to grow, so those areas will have more blood.
iFind monitors differences in blood oxygen ratios in growing cancer tissue compared to normal tissues, he adds. In this way, it detects "hypermetabolism" - the more rapid growth rate of malignant cells. When a certain threshold is passed, the device emits a light, tone, or beep.
That is an indication a woman needs to go to her physician for further breast screening, he says.
Dr. Chance's team tested the device with 116 women between 1998 and 2003. In all, 44 of the women had cancers, also diagnosed by standard methods, and the device had a 96 percent sensitivity rate in detecting those 44 cancers.
It takes only five minutes to use, Dr. Chance remarks.
"The object of this device is to get the women to go to the doctor if something is wrong," Dr. Chance says. "It records what it finds on a chip when she scans it across her breasts."
iFind is not meant as a substitute for mammograms or biopsies, Dr. Chance emphasizes, but might supplement those detection methods.
Dr. Chance says physicians might recommend it to specific patients, just as some physicians recommend certain patients use home glucose-monitoring devices, he says.
"The results of this initial study are very encouraging," says Dr. Gelovani. "Yet, large population-based studies are required to reproduce the findings to validate the technology."
If the device's effectiveness bears out in additional studies, he says, it would be especially valuable for women with a predisposition to cancer, including those with a family history or those with the so-called breast cancer genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2.
In another study presented at the meeting, other researchers used tiny particles called nanoshells - gold-wrapped bits of silica 20 times smaller than the average blood cell - to search out and destroy a protein, HER2. Aggressive breast cancers typically contain high levels of the protein.
Researchers from Rice University in Houston looked at two breast cancer cell lines.
One overexpressed the HER2 protein, which signals aggressive disease. The other cell line did not.
One set of the nanoshells was joined to the HER2 protein so it would seek it out, lighting up other malignant cells with high HER2.
Next, laser-directed heat was used to kill these invasive breast cancer cells. The researchers believe the same technique could prove effective against most soft-tissue cancers.
Always consult your physician for more information.
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In a recent meeting, the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program, scientists had the opportunity to report about new advances in the fight against breast cancer.
Using a medication already on the market, researchers say they can block key immune system cells that actually promote breast cancer recurrence, researchers report.
The therapy should re-arm the body's defenses against malignancy's return, the researchers say following their lab study with mice.
"We used a drug which is an interleukin-2 [IL-2] immunotoxin," says lead researcher Dr. Keith Knutson, assistant professor of immunology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minn.
The medication, Ontak (denileukin diftitox), is currently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat cutaneous T-cell lymphomas.
"What we found is the IL-2 immunotoxin doesn't kill tumors directly but it kills regulatory T-cells," Dr. Knutson explains. And that, in turn, boosted the overall immune system functioning, he says.
The researchers, from the Mayo Clinic and the University of Washington, Seattle, presented the new research.
"We know that breast cancer is recognized by the immune system," Dr. Knutson says. "But a block in immunity occurs and the tumor continues to grow. We've found one potential block and a strategy to reduce the effect of that block."
"The block is an immune cell, the regulatory T-cell," he says.
A cancer expert from the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., praised the study.
"These data are very interesting and hypothesis-generating," says Dr. Robert Morgan, a staff physician in the division of medical oncology and therapeutics research at the City of Hope.
"For many years, patients and oncologists have wondered why the immune mechanism is ineffective in preventing tumor development, growth, and metastasis formation," he notes. "These data suggest that the tumors themselves are affecting the immune system. This is early but promising research which will need to be confirmed in human trials."
More Studies Discussed
In other presentations at the meeting, researchers from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in Albuquerque reported that a new test that identifies genetic changes in breast tissue that appear normal could help predict relapse in breast cancer.
They used an assay (chemical used in the lab to study tissue) which measures the DNA content of telomeres - protein complexes that cap off the end of chromosomes - that are altered in tumors. The test must be refined before it is ready for widespread use, the researchers said.
In a third study, researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore reported that a special device can control the "scatter" of the electron beam used in radiation therapy.
This effectively lowers the amount of radiation to less than 25 percent of the current dose, they say. The advanced beam device, which is expected to reduce complications such as long-term skin reactions requires further study, the research team says.
Always consult your physician for more information.
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