International Study Targets Hereditary Breast Cancer
A drug trial using carboplatin, which is usually used in the treatment of ovarian cancer, will target a specific genetic group of breast cancer patients. The trial is being funded by Cancer Research UK and will be carried out through Breakthrough Breast Cancer. The study is called the BRCA Trial, because it will focus on patients with the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. Those genes are passed down from parents to their children.
The study will compare the use of carboplatin with standard breast cancer chemotherapy treatment. Dr Andrew Tutt, of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital, who did the original research on this, said that ". . . these platinum drugs seem to be much more effective in destroying the cancerous BRCA cells."
If you want to see if you qualify for this four year study, which will be done in the UK, Europe, America and Australia, read more about the drug trial from the BBC website.
Image of the BRCA2 gene is courtesy of RCSB Protein Data Bank.
PDB ID: 1IYJ, Pavletich, N.P., Jeffrey, P.D., Yang, H.J., BRCA2 function in DNA binding and recombination from a BRCA2-DSS1-ssDNA structure. Science v297 pp.1837-1848 , 2002
Comments
Carboplatin is used freuqesntly in the US for breast cancer already, this info may be erroneous or outdated.
Another biggie: ovarian cancer is a silent killer and is one of the deadliest threats to women’s health. The American Cancer Society says that about 20,180 American women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year alone. Every woman faces a risk of 1:57 risk of getting ovarian cancer in her lifetime.
-Jeanette