‘Remarkable’ discovery reveals how breast-cancer tumours stop THEMSELVES from spreading
Hope for breast-cancer patients after a ‘remarkable’ discovery reveals how tumours can stop THEMSELVES from spreading
- When breast cancer cells break away, tumours launch an immune response
- This response causes the release of immune cells that ‘freeze’ cancer cells
- Patients who lack this response are more likely to die than those who have it
- Researchers hope to mimic this ‘freezing’ to prevent breast cancers spreading
- One in eight women in the US and UK will have breast cancer at some point
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A ‘remarkable’ discovery reveals how breast-cancer tumours can stop themselves from spreading.
When breast-cancer cells break away from a tumour and travel to new parts of the body, the tumour triggers an immune response, a study found.
This causes the release of immune cells that ‘freeze’ cancer cells, preventing them from establishing in new areas, the research adds.
Study author Dr Christine Chaffer, from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, said: ‘Remarkably, by activating the immune response, the primary tumor essentially shuts down its own spread.’
The researchers hope they can one day mimic this cancer cell ‘freezing’ to prevent all breast cancers from spreading.
Around one in eight women in the US and UK will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives.
Those with cancer that is growing but still confined to the breast or nearby lymph nodes have a five-year survival rate of 93 percent, however, this falls to just 22 percent once the tumour has spread.
‘Remarkable’ discovery reveals how breast-cancer tumours stop themselves spreading (stock)
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Immune cells ‘freeze’ cancer cells
The researchers, which also included scientists from Harvard, analysed breast-cancer tumours in humans and mice.
In rodents, they discovered tumours that have not spread away from the breast have the ability to stop ‘breakaway’ cancer cells from travelling to other parts of the body.
This occurs by such tumours triggering an inflammatory response via the immune system, which causes immune cells to be released.
These immune cells find where ‘breakaway’ cancer cells may be settling and trying to create new tumours. The immune cells then ‘freeze’ these cancer cells.
Dr Chaffer said: ‘When these breakaway cells are settling, before they have established a new tumor, they are particularly vulnerable, because they are in an intermediate state and their identity isn’t very solid.
‘It’s at this point that the immune system can intervene.
Dr Sandra McAllister, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who was also involved in the study, added: ‘When breakaway cells are forced to remain in the transition state, they don’t grow very well and their ability to form a new tumor is severely compromised.’
WHAT IS BREAST CANCER, HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES IT STRIKE AND WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Each year in the UK there are more than 55,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 11,500 women. In the US, it strikes 266,000 each year and kills 40,000. But what causes it and how can it be treated?
What is breast cancer?
Breast cancer develops from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts.
When the breast cancer has spread into surrounding breast tissue it is called an ‘invasive’ breast cancer. Some people are diagnosed with ‘carcinoma in situ’, where no cancer cells have grown beyond the duct or lobule.
Most cases develop in women over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men though this is rare.
The cancerous cells are graded from stage one, which means a slow growth, up to stage four, which is the most aggressive.
What causes breast cancer?
A cancerous tumour starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply ‘out of control’.
Although breast cancer can develop for no apparent reason, there are some risk factors that can increase the chance of developing breast cancer, such as genetics.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most breast lumps are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign.
The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit.
How is breast cancer diagnosed?
- Initial assessment: A doctor examines the breasts and armpits. They may do tests such as a mammography, a special x-ray of the breast tissue which can indicate the possibility of tumours.
- Biopsy: A biopsy is when a small sample of tissue is removed from a part of the body. The sample is then examined under the microscope to look for abnormal cells. The sample can confirm or rule out cancer.
If you are confirmed to have breast cancer, further tests may be needed to assess if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound scan of the liver or a chest x-ray.
How is breast cancer treated?
Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used.
- Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or the removal of the affected breast depending on the size of the tumour.
- Radiotherapy: A treatment which uses high energy beams of radiation focussed on cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells, or stops cancer cells from multiplying. It is mainly used in addition to surgery.
- Chemotherapy: A treatment of cancer by using anti-cancer drugs which kill cancer cells, or stop them from multiplying
- Hormone treatments: Some types of breast cancer are affected by the ‘female’ hormone oestrogen, which can stimulate the cancer cells to divide and multiply. Treatments which reduce the level of these hormones, or prevent them from working, are commonly used in people with breast cancer.
How successful is treatment?
The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumour in an early stage may then give a good chance of cure.
The routine mammography offered to women between the ages of 50 and 70 mean more breast cancers are being diagnosed and treated at an early stage.
For more information visit breastcancercare.org.uk or www.cancerhelp.org.uk
‘We might influence all breast cancers to keep tumors in check’
After analysing mice, the researcher then assessed 215 people who had been diagnosed with advanced breast cancer.
They found those who had the same sort of ‘breakaway’ immune cell response were more likely to survive than those without it.
Speaking of future research, Dr Chaffer said: ‘We want to understand exactly what the tumor is releasing to activate this immune response and how immune cells are targeting the secondary sites.
‘Our goal is to work out how we can mimic this “freezing” of secondary cancers, so that one day we might influence all breast cancers to keep their secondary tumors in check.’
Although previous research suggests just 0.02 percent of ‘breakaway’ cells go on to form tumours, Dr Chaffer claims the scientists have a ‘real opportunity to bring this number down to zero’.
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