Groundbreaking new treatment for aggressive breast cancer has 100% survival rate

Hope is on the horizon for patients with aggressive, inherited breast cancers.A recent clinical trial, led by researchers at Cambridge University, explored the effects of combining chemotherapy with the targeted cancer drug olaparib before surgery.

Every patient who received this protocol survived the critical three-year post-treatment period.The research, published in Nature Communications, suggests this preemptive, two-part approach could be the most effective plan of treatment for early-stage breast cancer linked to BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations.Breast cancer or BRCA genes are present in every cell of the human body.

When functioning, BRCA1 and BRCA2 repair DNA and prevent cancerous changes.However, when a mutation compromises these genes, cancer risk increases.Inheriting this damaged DNA can increase the risk for breast and ovarian cancer in women and breast and prostate cancer in men.BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes are more common in young women, and these mutations increase cancer risk by as much as 84%.

Six percent of all breast cancer patients carry BRCA gene mutations, but in patients under 45, roughly 12% carry the gene.BRCA cancers are notoriously aggressive and difficult to treat.In 2013, Angelina Jolie, who carries the faulty BRCA1 gene, made headlines when she underwent a preventative double mastectomy.

As a result of the procedure, Jolie, who lost her own mother to breast cancer, saw her chances of developing breast cancer drop from 87 percent to less than 5 percent.The current protocol for treating BRCA cancers includes shrinking the tumour using chemotherapy and immunotherapy, before removing it through surgery.The first three years after surgery — when there is the greatest risk of relapse or death — are critical.The trial recruited patients from across the UK and aimed to test the efficacy of combining chemotherapy with olaparib before surgery and carefully timing when these treatments were administered.The study revealed that allowing a 48-hour �...