One woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every fourteen seconds somewhere across the globe — based on data showing that an approximate 2.3 million women worldwide were newly diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020.
In Singapore, it is the most common cancer among women, and will likely affect one in thirteen women in their lifespan. Although advances in medicine today allow for treatments for early-stage and non-metastatic breast cancer, advanced stage and metastatic breast cancer is considered incurable with current treatment options, with very poor prognosis.
The early detection of breast cancer metastasis is therefore paramount in the treatment of the condition, and a team of researchers discovered a non-invasive biomarker that could aid with earlier diagnosis.
Led by Assistant Professor Minh Le from the Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM) and Department of Pharmacology at the National University of Singapore’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine), and Associate Professor Andrew Grimson from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Cornell University, the researchers found that particles which are secreted by tumour cells, extracellular vesicles (EVs), displayed a high level of protein integrins αv and β1, in patients with locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer.
Asst Prof Le said, “Metastasis is the chief concern for breast cancer patients. The study highlights the potential of integrins αv and β1 as a promising prognostic and therapeutic target for patients with metastatic breast cancer. Our research has opened several doors, and we hope that future work will help develop new ways to assess, monitor and suppress this hallmark of cancer.”