Breast Cancer Gene Therapy

Breast cancer gene therapy may develop from this research.

Doctors have looked for a long time for a breast cancer gene in breast cancer cells. The breast cancer gene could help identify patients that would benefit from new breast cancer treatment.

Genes related to inherited forms of breast cancer can help people know if they are at risk for breast cancer. Having a breast cancer gene means that you have the opportunity to get a preventative mastectomy.

It can also mean that you start getting mammograms more often and earlier in your life than women without the gene(s) for breast cancer.

What Are BRCA1 And BRCA2?

They are found in the DNA of women who are at higher risk of developing breast cancer. You inherit your genes from your parent or parents.

If you inherit the BRCA1 gene or the BRCA2 gene, you need to talk to your doctor about what this means to you. Testing for the breast cancer gene is a personal decision. Women tend to get tested for the gene if a mother or sister has had breast cancer early in life. If a person has one or both of the genes, she can make the decision to be tested sooner and more often. She can also make the decision to have a prophylactic mastectomy (preventative breast removal) so she don’t get breast cancer.

The BRCA1 gene and the BRCA2 gene, when normal, help breast cells grow normally. When the genes are abnormal, the breast cancer cells begin to grow out of control. A cancer forms that cannot be controlled by normal body measures. Up to ten percent of breast cancers are because of abnormal BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.

Women with the BRCA1 gene or the BRCA2 gene can also get ovarian cancer at a higher rate than other women. Right now, there is no special breast cancer chemo for women who have these abnormal genes. The only good treatment is prevention of breast cancer and early screening for patients who have this type of condition.

Research Being Done At The National Breast Cancer Research Center

New breast cancer center treatment is being researched all the time at the breast cancer center of the National Cancer Institute. Up to 90 percent of women diagnosed with cancer of the breast will survive past five years because of reserach. Their research has shown that lumpectomy along with radiation therapy is preferred (and just as good as) over a mastectomy in early breast cancer stages.

The national breast cancer research center has shown that screening mammograms help women survive breast cancer better than if they didn’t have breast cancer. More women are having screening mammograms than ever before.

This means that more cancer is being caught early so women survive longer.

Doctors use various combinations of experimental breast cancer chemo on women with breast cancer. This gets rid of any cancer cells that might have travelled beyond the breast.

Hormonal therapies with drugs like tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors are now increasingly being used because of research on the drugs. They have been found to treat cancers that are hormone receptor positive.

Doctors are now routinely checking for the hormone receptor status of the breast cancers they find. These drugs interfere with estrogen in the body, which can cause breast cancer cell growth.

This kind of new breast cancer treatment has helped save the lives of many women with breast cancer. Even women with advanced cancer have been found to live longer than women who don’t take the treatment. Tamoxifen and Raloxifene have been found to prevent advanced breast cancer in women who are at risk for having this condition.

A monoclonal antibody has been discovered that binds to receptors on breast tissue. About twenty percent of breast cancer patients have to much of the protein HER2.. This makes the tumor more aggressive.

Medications, such as trastuzamab, help women with HER2 positive cancers get better. Women using this medication have their cancer reoccur one-half as often compared to when only chemotherapy is used.

Hereditary cancers are found to be due to brca1 and brca2 about 80% to 90% of the time. This has been found in research on women with hereditary cancer. Women who have these gene mutations have ten times the risk of other women who might get cancer. These women can have preventative treatment to reduce their risk of getting breast cancer.

The future of breast cancer research involves more gene research on the genes that lead to breast cancer. Doctors may be able to block or replace these genes so that a woman doesn’t get breast cancer.

Doctors are also looking to find less toxic medications to treat breast cancer. Already, less toxic treatments are being used to help breast cancer patients.

They have already found five types of breast cancer that are treated differently because of their genetics. In the future, doctors may find better treatments for the different types of breast cancer so that even more people will recover and live from this type of cancer.

Dr. Christine Traxler
2 02 2010