Irish researchers identify markers to reduce over-treatment in breast cancer patients
Irish researchers have identified immune markers that could help spare breast cancer patients from further unnecessary treatment.
Research led by RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences and University College Dublin found markers that can help doctors determine which breast cancer patients are unlikely to benefit from chemotherapy, sparing them unnecessary treatment.
Chemotherapy is often used in the early stage of ER+HER2 breast cancer, which accounts for 70% of diagnoses each year. The side effects can be significant, and this raises concern about overtreatment.
The RCSI say that at the moment, patients are assessed using a risk score, but many receive an intermediate result, which means chemotherapy is often prescribed as a precautionary measure.
Research lead at RCSI School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences Professor Darran O’Connor explained the findings.
He said: “Genomic testing has advanced our ability to tailor treatment for these patients, but AI-based analysis of the tumour microenvironment takes this further still. Crucially, because this approach works from tissue samples processed as standard, it has the potential to improve both the precision and the equity of treatment for most women with early-stage breast cancer, regardless of where they are treated.”
Dr Zak Kinsella, Postdoctoral Researcher at RCSI, said: “It's really encouraging to see how much additional prognostic information can be extracted from these samples using AI. The density of cytotoxic T-cells in the tumour microenvironment proved to be a remarkably strong predictor of treatment response, and that has real implications for how we approach chemotherapy decisions in this patient group.”
William Gallagher, Senior Author from the UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, added: “Before this approach can be implemented in clinical practice, further validation in larger studies will be required. However, the findings give us a clearer picture of what drives recurrence risk of breast cancer in patients with intermediate genomic scores and bring us closer to the kind of personalised treatment decisions that could avoid unnecessary chemotherapy.”