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| via medscape.com |
"Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have discovered that the risk of death from breast cancer is twice as high for patients with high heterogeneity of the estrogen receptor within the same tumour as compared to patients with low heterogeneity. The study, which is published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, also shows that the higher risk of death over a span of 25 years is independent of other known tumour markers and also holds true for Luminal A breast cancer, a subtype with a generally good prognosis.
The most common form of breast cancer is estrogen-receptor-positive, so called hormone-sensitive breast cancer. This means that the tumour needs the female hormone estrogen to grow. Women who develop this kind of breast cancer have a remaining long-term risk of dying of the disease. It is also known that the estrogen receptor can change when a breast cancer tumour spreads, which affects survival. Why this is the case, however, is not known, but a possible explanation is that there are tumour cells in one and the same tumour with varying degrees of expression of the estrogen receptor. This is known as intra-tumour heterogeneity.
In the present study, Swedish and American researchers sought to discover if breast cancer patients with high heterogeneity of the estrogen receptor in their breast cancer tumour have a higher long-term risk of dying. To this end, they studied the fates of 593 patients in a clinical study, who had been either treated with tamoxifen or not treated with systemic therapy after surgery. All women had been diagnosed with post-menopausal estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer between 1976 and 1990..."
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The most common form of breast cancer is estrogen-receptor-positive, so called hormone-sensitive breast cancer. This means that the tumour needs the female hormone estrogen to grow. Women who develop this kind of breast cancer have a remaining long-term risk of dying of the disease. It is also known that the estrogen receptor can change when a breast cancer tumour spreads, which affects survival. Why this is the case, however, is not known, but a possible explanation is that there are tumour cells in one and the same tumour with varying degrees of expression of the estrogen receptor. This is known as intra-tumour heterogeneity.
In the present study, Swedish and American researchers sought to discover if breast cancer patients with high heterogeneity of the estrogen receptor in their breast cancer tumour have a higher long-term risk of dying. To this end, they studied the fates of 593 patients in a clinical study, who had been either treated with tamoxifen or not treated with systemic therapy after surgery. All women had been diagnosed with post-menopausal estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer between 1976 and 1990..."
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