Blood Test for Improved Breast Cancer Diagnosis
Investigators of a study have reported that they are inching nearer to their goal of creating a blood test which could help in earlier and effective breast cancer diagnosis.
During the course of this latest study, researchers employed data taken from the large WHI or Women Health Initiative. They uncovered that the levels of marker EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) could shoot up in the blood samples of females before even seventeen months of their breast cancer diagnosis. Epidermal growth factor receptor is a marker that plays a vital role in the development and metastasis of breast cancer cells.
Study author, Dr. Christopher Li stated that on its own, epidermal growth factor receptor failed in proving to be beneficial as a marker for breast cancer identification.
Dr. Li who is an affiliate of the epidemiology program, Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, Seattle, further added that their objective was for developing a group of biomarkers which would be far more precise in breast cancer diagnosis.
High Levels of epidermal growth factor receptor Prior to Breast Cancer Diagnosis
The latest research involving 688 female entrants all having ER-positive or estrogen-receptor positive type of breast cancer and who had their blood samples taken in seventeen months before their breast cancer got diagnosed. The outcomes of blood analysis test of these women were contrasted against the 688 female study entrants that belonged to the analogous age bracket and that had not yet experienced any signs or symptoms of breast cancer.
A presentation of the study outcome was done during the American Association for Cancer Research yearly conference.
By and large, investigators of the study made an identification of seventy-nine proteins. The levels of these detected proteins were high in the blood sample of females having breast cancer in comparison to other females.
EGFR was one of these identified proteins which could be corroborated employing a commercially obtainable assay.
The investigators then segregated nearly four hundred of the females into 4 sets based on the levels of EGFR in their blood samples. Women in the highest sector were at a three-fold greater risk of getting breast cancer in comparison to women in the lowest quarter.
The investigators then solely scrutinized the EGFR levels amongst the approximately 150 women who were currently using estrogen plus progestin hormone treatment.
Dr. Li elucidated that it is well-known that hormone treatment considerably impacted amounts of proteins that circulated in the blood.
Those females belonging to the highest quarter were at a nine fold greater risk of getting breast cancer in comparison to women belonging to the lower quarter. Dr. Li further stated that the investigators are still not totally certain as to the reason behind hormone therapy having such a major effect.
As a sole marker amongst women currently using estrogen plus progestin hormone therapy, levels of EGFR were able to make a precise identification in ninety percent of females that would not get breast cancer.
However, EGFR levels were able to identify solely thirty-one percent of females that would get breast cancer.
Dr. Li stated that they are planning to evaluate whether a group of biomarkers could be merged with mammography which could augment the precision of the general screening strategy.
He further added that the upside to the research was that the investigators were able to use blood samples drawn from females before they were identified with breast cancer. He stated that when the blood samples are used after they have been detected and become symptomatic then it is usually quite late.
