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The secrets of a hard-to-spot form of breast cancer are being uncovered, raising hopes of earlier diagnosis and better treatment.
For the first time, scientists have identified a gene behind invasive lobular carcinoma – cancer of the milk-producing glands.
It accounts for up to 15 per cent of the 50,000 cases of breast cancer that are diagnosed each year, is most common in women aged between 45 and 55 and can develop in both breasts at the same time.
Scientists believe the new breakthrough will help some of the 50,000 cases of breast cancer diagnosed each year
However, because it doesn’t often form a classic lump, it is difficult to diagnose and so if often not picked up until it has grown to such a point that it is harder to treat.
If doctors know which women are at high risk of the disease, they could be closely monitored and any cancer nipped in the bud.
The British-led collaboration of 100 universities and research institutions from around the world compared the DNA of more than 6,500 women with invasive lobular carcinoma with that of more than 35,000 women without the disease.
This for the first time linked one particular gene with invasive lobular carcinoma.
Women with the rogue stretch of DNA have a 13 per cent higher chance of the cancer than one without it, the journal PLoS Genetics reports.
Researchers were concentrating on a particular type of breast cancer that does not form a lump
The international collaboration also revealed that dozens of genes already linked to breast cancer in general are also involved in invasive lobular carcinoma.
Study co-leader Professor Montserrat Garcia-Closas, of the The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: ‘Understanding the genetic factors at work in lobular cancers could be particularly important, because they are often missed by mammography because of their unusual growth patterns.
‘In the future, we hope that improving our knowledge of the genes involved in lobular carcinoma could improve our ability to prevent and treat it.'
Study co-author Dr Elinor Sawyer, of King’s College London and Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘A diagnosis of breast cancer can be devastating, particularly if it is not picked up early and the cancer is at a stage when it may be more difficult to treat.
‘This can be the case for lobular breast cancers as they are difficult to see on mammograms.
‘By identifying genetic factors that result in an increased risk of lobular cancer we hope in the future to be able to find better ways of assessing the risk of developing these cancers, so different screening tests can be offered to those at high risk, as well as finding new treatments for lobular cancer.'
Dr Matthew Lam, of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, which helped fund the research, said: ‘Early and accurate diagnosis is key to beating breast cancer.’
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