Healthy Breasts For Every Woman

Cancer Research UK scientists have developed a system to identify faulty or missing genes that could prevent specific chemotherapy regimes from working.

The research shows it is now possible to rapidly pinpoint genes which prevent cancer cells from being destroyed by anti-cancer drugs and use these same genes to predict which patients will benefit from specific types of treatment.  This will allow for personalised treatments for women with breast cancer.

Lead author Dr Charles Swanton, head of translational cancer therapeutics at Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute, said: “A great challenge in cancer medicine is determining which patients will benefit from particular cancer drugs and it is hoped that this research is a step towards more rapid developments in this type of personalised medicine.”

To read the full article, you can go to http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/news/archive/pressrelease/2010-03-01-gene-test-hope-breast-cancer.

As always, I am concerned with breast cancer prevention and I would like to know what is causing women to have faulting or missing genes in the first place.  We know that DNA is not fixed and can mutate during a lifetime.  So what has happened to these women?

Nikki Mattei