Researchers from the Regional Centre for Biomedical Research (CRIB) and the Albacete University Hospital Complex Research Unit (UICHUA) in collaboration with the universities of Yale and Semmelweis in Hungary and the Salamanca Cancer Research Centre, have published two studies in which genetic alterations in breast cancer, which are associated with the disease exacerbating and less chance of survival, are described.
The first research established a relationship between the expression of certain genes in breast tumours and how the illness progressed. The study proposes there are determined genomic signatures comparing normal breast tissue with ductal carcinoma in situ, non invasive premalignant lesions and basal-type breast cancer, one of the most aggressive subtypes there are. The researchers went on to explain that gene modules, which were identified at each stage of the illness, contained genes which are mainly involved in cellular division, immune response and protein degradation functions. "The results published show that a high amount of these genes in the tumours of patients with breast cancer, both individually and in combination with functional groups, is associated with a worse clinical diagnosis". They, in turn, indicate that this work paves new ways for breast cancer treatment, putting forward modular and functional genes, which can be controlled by pharmaceuticals, as therapeutic targets".
This study, published in the journal Oncotarget, was directed by doctor Alberto Ocaña, director of Translational Oncology at the Albacete University Hospital with the participation of researchers from the CRIB Translational Oncology group, from the Department of “Neurosciences” at the University of Yale School of Medicine (USA), the Budapest Cancer Biomarkers research group (Hungary) and the Salamanca Cancer Research Centre, in collaboration with doctor Atanasio Pandiella.
In the same vein, the CRIB Translational Oncology group has also published another paper which describes a genomic signature which has linked obesity and hormonal-type breast cancer and "provides evidence of the crucial role that obesity plays in the progression of breast cancer". The results of this research, spearheaded by Doctor Eva Galan, CRIB researcher, suggest new strategies for treating this illness.
"Taking patients with breast cancer as a reference point, we have identified altered genes in obese patients which are directly related to worsening of the illness and a lower survival rate”, they said, whilst explaining that these genes have high potential for becoming therapeutic targets for treating breast cancer in these patients.
This work, in which the previously mentioned groups have also participated, has also been published in the journal, Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.
These studies have been carried out thanks to private sector funding, such as from the Albacete Association for Skin Stitches (ACEPAIN) and the CRIS CANCER Foundation (Madrid), as well as the public sector such as the Albacete Provincial Council, the Biomedical Research Centre for Cancer (CIBERONC), the UCLM, The Carlos III (ISCIII) Health Institute and the European Fund for Regional Development (FEDER).
UCLM Communication Office Albacete, 26th of February 2018