Shot by Dong Jun. Subtitles by Cai Wenjun.
Patients with the most aggressive form of breast cancer can now have precise chemotherapy based on genetic typing to improve the effects of treatment and prolong their lives.
The world’s first such treatment plan was initiated at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, whose research was published by The British Medical Journal on Thursday.
Breast cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer in women, while triple-negative breast cancer is the most complex and deadly form, with a much higher chance of relapse and metastasis. Triple-negative breast cancer affects between 15 and 20 percent of patients.
Such breast cancer does not express the genes for HER2, progesterone receptors, or estrogen receptors. Therefore, chemotherapy is the only treatment option.
“Clinical practice found that not all patients with this type of breast cancer have poor outcomes,” said Dr Shao Zhimin, a leading expert involved in the research. “So how to identify different types of patients and give more precise and targeted treatment can be extremely important. Dividing patients and giving more appropriate treatment can be very meaningful.”
His team spent years establishing five RNA-based prognosis models to forecast treatment results based on genetic typing and divided patients into groups with high chemotherapy risk and low risk. It is the world’s first such model, which provides evidence and guidance for precise treatment for different patients. Previously, all patients were under the same plan.
“We designed different chemotherapy plans for patients with high risk and low risk of relapse and metastasis,” Shao said. “A clinical trial with 504 patients found the three-year disease-free survival for patients with high risk increased by 10 percent. There is a 100 percent survival for patients with low risk. It is a very encouraging result and confirms the accuracy and value of our model.”
The hospital’s Dr Gong Yue said the research was mainly based on Asian patients, but the hospital would welcome patients from all over the world to receive genetic typing and get more precise treatment.
“Eligible patients, who are in early stage of triple-negative breast cancer, can contact our hospital and bring their samples for testing,” he said. “Currently, the genetic typing technology is only available in our hospital. We will step up its further development and commercialization to benefit more patients in the future.”
Contract info:
Email: [email protected] for Dr Gong Yue
,https://www.shine.cn/news/metro/2410242811/