Women with extensive lymph node involvement can still survive breast cancer if they have a certain pattern of gene activity.

In cancer, certain genes become 'quiet' and some become more active. It's becoming increasingly apparent that the combination of genes 'expressed' in tissue may affect the outcome of cancer.

Researchers at Rush Presbyterian St Luke's Medical Center, in Chicago, have analyzed breast tissue taken from 79 women with breast cancer during 1979 to 1999 and followed up for several years. They found that certain patterns of gene expression were linked to long term survival - even when the clinical picture looked bleak. For instance, if a woman has a large tumor and the disease has spread to affect ten or more lymph nodes, the prognosis is generally accepted as poor. Yet some of these women still survive.

Increased activity of certain genes increased the survival prospect, the researchers found, while activity of others made for a poor prognosis. Further research is ongoing, in the hope that a test based upon these genes will be available soon. This will help identify those for whom the prognosis is very poor, so they could be spared the rigors of conventional chemotherapy, but perhaps be directed toward novel treatments that may benefit them.

Source

American Society of Clinical Oncology Meeting 31st May 2003