Clinical Utility of Breast Cancer DNA Markers in Plasma
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: It has become more apparent that in cancer patients, identification of genetic changes in tumors can be highly informative in assessing the outcome of treatments. Multiple genetic changes are required for tumors to start growing, continuing growing and become more aggressive. Although multiple genetic markers in breast cancer have been defined, studies of how they can be used to diagnose breast cancer and predict disease progression are still limited. However, genetic changes (DNA markers) in breast cancer should prove to be valuable as prognostic tools. Traditionally genetic markers are tested only in tumors that have been surgically removed, which limits the assessment of the disease progression to the genetic status of the tumor when it was removed. We have developed an innovative molecular diagnostic assay to assess multiple genetic markers in a small amount of blood (less than 5 ml) from breast cancer patients. This assay provides a unique approach in monitoring genetic changes occurring during tumor progression without the need to obtain tumor tissue through invasive surgical procedures. The assay is highly informative, more tumor-specific than conventional assays, provides an inexpensive means of rapid testing, and offers an improved method for diagnosis and prognosis of breast cancer disease. By correlating these genetic analyses with clinico-pathological factors, the assay provides an exciting new approach for assessing breast cancer progression.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The diagnostic significance of genetic markers for tumor suppressor genes (loss of heterozygosity) in plasma will be assessed in patients undergoing sentinel lymphadenectomy. Sentinel lymphadenectomy removes the first node (sentinel node) to receive metastases from the primary breast tumor. This innovative surgical procedure, which accurately stages disease progression in patients, detects small instances of tumor spreading (micrometastasis), and reduces the side effects associated with standard lymphadenectomy, was pioneered by JWCI and is now used throughout the world. The genetic assay will be conducted in conjunction with the sentinel lymphadenectomy procedure to improve efficacy in diagnosis and prognosis. This provides a highly innovative approach for detecting and understanding disease spreading.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The successful completion of these studies will hopefully provide an assay for diagnosis and prognosis as well as evaluation of therapeutic interventions. To date, the decision about a treatment regimen has been predominantly based on the physical, biochemical and genetic characteristics of the tumor. This assay will provide a new way to use genetic markers as measures of disease progression and potentially improve our ability to tailor the most effective treatment(s) to individual breast cancer patients, thus improving the management of breast cancer disease in California. This study endeavors to achieve this goal by incorporating and combining the fields of surgery, pathology, molecular genetics, medical and radiation oncology, and nursing.