Scientists have found a new biomarker that can predict the outcome of breast cancers that have spread to the lymph nodes, reveal findings published in the British Journal of Cancer today (Wednesday).
Scientists from the René Gauducheau Cancer Centre in France took samples from 92 women who had surgery for lymph node positive breast cancer - where cancer cells had spread to the armpit area - and compared the amount of a protein called UBE2C with the outcome of the patients over a five year period. They found that high levels of the protein were linked to a more aggressive tumour.
It is hoped that the protein UBE2C could be developed into a test to help doctors predict what treatment works best for women with this form of breast cancer and enable scientists to identify drugs to target the protein.
Dr Pascal Jézéquel, who led the study from the René Gauducheau Cancer Centre said: "Previous studies have alerted us to the presence of UBE2C in certain particularly aggressive cancers, so we wanted to understand how reliable an indication high levels of the UBE2C protein was in predicting the likelihood of the cancer returning after treatment.
"This study shows that the protein gives us a very reliable indication of the aggressiveness of disease."