Research Gap in Breast Cancer on Red Alert

Ten "critical" gaps in knowledge about the development of breast cancer must be addressed, according to BBC News Health.

Finding out how breast cancer spreads and evades therapy is a key concern, they report in Breast Cancer Research. Plugging the gaps in research would lead to improved clinical care for patients within five years, their review of evidence suggests.

Projections suggest 185,000 UK lives will be lost by 2030 at current progress rates, say cancer charities. In their review of recent progress in research, more than 100 scientists, doctors and healthcare professionals looked at how limitations in knowledge of breast cancer are affecting the setting of priorities for the future.

They have identified ten key gaps that need to addressed: better understanding of genetic factors, pinpointing sustainable lifestyle changes, targeted breast screening to those who will most benefit, understanding how breast cancer grows and spreads and understanding how cancer cells with different characteristics form within a tumor. Tests to measure how well patients will respond to chemotherapy or radiotherapy, improving drug regimens, developing better imaging techniques, practical support and tissue donation and analysis are also included.

Prof Alistair Thompson, of the University of Dundee, co-author of the analysis, said advances in science had transformed knowledge of breast cancers over the past four or five years. "We're beginning to understand some of the greater complexities of what we're having to deal with and unpick some of the mechanisms by which cancer cells work, divide and spread," he said.

Prof Thompson said the most important gap in research was to find out how cancer progresses. One "real" advantage to patients with breast cancer that had spread was to take a biopsy of the secondary tumor to see how much it had changed, he said.