A new predictive marker which could help doctors to decide whether breast cancer patients would benefit from chemotherapy has been identified by a team of scientists.
The study, part-funded by Cancer Research UK and published in the British Journal of Cancer today (Wednesday), shows for the first time how this molecular marker has been singled out as an independent factor in examining a breast cancer patient's tumour.
Scientists working on the study found that the more the marker - called BCL2 - was present in a patient with early stage breast cancer, the more likely they were to survive.
This could help doctors assess whether or not chemotherapy will benefit a patient - a big challenge faced by doctors when treating breast cancer.
Dr Sarah-Jane Dawson, lead author of the study who is based at Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Research Institute, said: "There are a limited number of tools used to assess prognosis in women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. New markers are urgently needed. BCL2 provides important additional prognostic information that may help guide decision making related to the use of chemotherapy".
Breast cancer is treated with different combinations of surgery, hormonal therapies, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and biological therapy depending on a variety of predictive markers. Any tests that help doctors decide which of these treatments to give can be very helpful.
Until now BCL2 has been associated with the presence of oestrogen receptors but has not been recognised as an independent marker.
BCL2 retains its ability to predict whether chemotherapy will be beneficial both in the short term and in the long term, even when a breast cancer recurs many years later - making it a particularly valuable test for doctors.