Posted on 09/23/2012 5:15:01 PM PDT by neverdem
In a move that could alter the way that breast cancers are treated, researchers have redefined the disease into four main classes and determined that one type of breast cancer has more in common with an aggressive form of ovarian cancer than other breast cancers.
The finding that a form of breast cancer may be genetically similar to a type of ovarian cancer underscores a new way thinking about cancer that moves away from defining cancers by the organ of origin. The findings are the result of the largest and most comprehensive study of the genetics of breast cancer to date and could offer new hope to cancer patients.
"We're going to move farther and farther from the practice of classifying cancers by where they arise and more and more by what their molecular composition and wiring is all about," said Dr. Christopher Benz, an oncologist at UCSF and co-principal investigator of a partnership between the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato and UC Santa Cruz.
The new research, published online in the journal Nature on Sunday, is the fifth study to come out of the Cancer Genome Atlas, a project funded by the National Institutes of Health to examine the key genomic changes in at least 20 different cancer types.
Previous findings The project's researchers have previously published reports on glioblastoma, an aggressive type of brain cancer and on a form of ovarian cancer as well as colon cancer and, earlier this month, squamous cell lung cancer, a type of non-small cell lung cancer. Breast cancer, the most common type among women, is responsible for 1.3 million new cases and 450,000 deaths annually worldwide.
The UCSF-Buck Institute collaboration is one of seven Genome Data Analyses Centers in the country - the only one in California - combining...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
It's a FReebie.
Your link failed for me, please try again.
My grandmother died from breast cancer, mother from a VERY aggressive ovarian cancer. If anyone is interested, I belong to the Gilda Radner Ovarian Registry and if you or someone in your family has a strain like this, please look into her (Gene Wilder’s) registry. It’s a valuable registry that is searching (and found several genes) for genes responsible for some strains of genetic cancers.
I don't know how to go about it but FReepers could use a ping list for breast cancer.
What can be done about this except know in enough advance to remove the afflicted parts?
My niece who was still in her 30s had to get both breasts removed, etc. due to her father’s mother (not my side of the family). Now her two daughters may face something like this in the future - hard to think about but the alternative is worse.
This isn't like BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic testing while still healthy. They did this on DNA from tumors. There could be various mutations in it.
So I don’t really understand. Is this just information that’s interesting but not really useful at this point?
Actually, some states are requiring insurance companies to pay for hysterectomies if they test positive for the gene.
I honestly don’t know what to do about it though.
That sounds like a misunderstanding or malpractice. A hysterectomy can be a partial or total removal of the uterus. Who had that surgery and for what reason?
BRCA1 and BRCA2: Cancer Risk and Genetic Testing
BRCA1 and BRCA2 are human genes that belong to a class of genes known as tumor suppressors. Mutation of these genes has been linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.Let's get back to the story at hand. From the San Francisco Chronicle article:
"This latest research involved the genomic analysis of tissue samples from 825 breast cancer patients, and it may change the way doctors view the many subtypes of the disease."
These patients have more than risk for the disease. They have breast cancer already, and their tumors were characterized genetically. That's done to find useful therapies and to avoid what's useless or worse.
N.B. Once any particular cancer has been established, various new mutations can occur, but they have found certain patterns in some cancers.
Makes sense. This is a direct result of better tech allowing us to more closely compare cancers.
Breast cancer isn't as common as all cancers as a topic, just a subset. Cancer is usually the second leading cause of death, with exceptions explained more by economics and migration rather than cancer's extremely diverse biology and discrimination, e.g.
Cancer overtakes heart disease among US Hispanics
I started a health & science ping list long before I started my stem cell/regenerative medicine list and my microbiology later expanded to a combined microbiology/immunology list. (The diabetes list I have was started by someone else. I was asked to keep it going.)
If you start a cancer or a breast cancer ping list, you can put me on it. Beyond me, you'll probably have to ask for others to join it.
I was under the impression they found the cure for breast cancer a year ago but the FDA won’t approve it. The federal government will allow the research but it will never go into production because of the FDA. T cell cured 100 out of a 100 breast cancer patients. Remember the money is in the disease not the cure.
It's probably internet nonsense. They just identified these four main types.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.