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Oncologists have revolutionized the treatment of breast cancer
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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The English Columbia Institute (Canada) has identified new cancer genes that should change the classical approach to diagnosing this disease, and also create a basis for developing non-standard drugs of a new generation for more successful treatment of breast cancer.
To this day, oncologists have identified only three distinct subtypes of breast cancer (estrogen-positive, HER2-positive, and triple-negative). But the results of the most recent studies by various research groups (see here and here) have completely destroyed such a simplified understanding of breast cancer.
One of the results of the Canadian scientists' work was the latest classification of breast cancer subtypes, which now consists of 10 categories based not on the common clinical picture of breast cancer, but on the unique genetic properties of tumors. As is now clear, almost all of these genes have every chance of offering much-needed more detailed insight into the very essence of breast cancer biology, allowing doctors to predict in advance whether a tumor will respond to a specific treatment (or it is much better to immediately, without wasting time, start using other means), whether it will actively metastasize, spreading throughout the body, with what probability one can expect the return of the disease after undergoing a course of chemotherapy...
Today's research, the results of which can be found in the new issue of the journal Nature, is a major study in the field of breast cancer; it can be called the culmination of all the efforts spent on research into this disease over several decades.
Scientists have studied DNA and RNA in more than 2,000 samples taken from women suffering from breast cancer. The work on collecting samples began 10 years ago. An unprecedented amount of material has allowed us to discover fresh, relevant patterns in the data obtained. Let us briefly name the most significant results of the study.
Breast cancer has been reclassified into 10 subgroups based on combined genetic markers that correlate with survival. This is bound to change the way we prescribe medications.
Several genes have been discovered that have never been linked to breast cancer. These are now novel drug targets for the near future. The information will be available, spurring the development of new anti-cancer drugs.
These genes are closely linked to cellular signaling pathways that control cell growth and division, suggesting how gene damage can trigger disease by disrupting key cellular processes.
Although the work is unlikely to help today's patients, it will completely change the approach to breast cancer treatment in the future, making it many times more successful and more personal. Although the creation of a new strategy will require a certain period of time and properly organized new research, including research on the latest genetically targeted drugs
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