Researchers at the Duke Medical Center have possibly identified a biomarker that measures the progress in breast cancer chemoprevention trials, according to the American Association for Cancer Research.
The researchers tested for protein network signaling in breast cells from woman at high risk for breast cancer. The analysis found three signaling pathways—Akt/mTOR/PI3K/cSrc, EGFR/MEK/ERK and HER2/bcl-2—that indicate an increased risk of getting breast cancer.
If these molecular signals were targeted by drugs, the rate of increased risk of breast cancer could be lowered.
"No one expects to get cancer, so we can't measure the rate of people who do not get cancer as a measure of success," Victoria Seewaldt, lead researcher and director of the prevention program at Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center told AACR. "The trials would need to be at least 20,000 patients. By identifying this biomarker, we can set up trials that would only need 200 patients."
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