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Picture showing the metastasis of a primary breast tumour to bone (Author: Formas Naturales by Inbiomotion, IRB Barcelona).
 19.10.2017

An international consortium identifies the breast cancer patients who would benefit from a treatment to prevent metastasis

A study published in the Lancet Oncology by an international team led by Prof Rob E. Coleman, from the University of Sheffield), and Prof Roger R. Gomis, from IRB Barcelona at PCB, identifies the effect of MAF amplification on the outcome of treatment with adjuvant zoledronic acid in early breast cancer.

 

Physicians currently have no tools to help them detect breast cancer patients who will suffer metastasis, a process that occurs in 15-20% of cases. In particular, they are unable to identify those patients that may benefit from metastasis-specific treatments such as zoledronic acid.

A study led by Professor Robert E. Coleman, at the University of Sheffield, and the ICREA researcher Roger Gomis at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and published today in Lancet Oncologyhas uncovered MAF amplification as an approach that allows the stratification of breast cancer patients that would benefit from the use of zoledronic acid in the adjuvant setting (MAF negative) from those that may be harmed (MAF positive and non postmenopausal). 

The original discovery was patented and transferred to Inbiomotion, a spin off from the IRB Barcelona and ICREA, founded at the end of 2010. Inbiomotion, led by the venture investors Ysios Capital and Caixa Capital Risc, has developed the technology necessary to validate the marker in clinical trials.

Bone metastasis can be controlled, but not cured, by drugs and so prevention of disease recurrence and metastasis is essential to reduce the 100,000 deaths that occur each year in the EU from breast cancer. Large randomized clinical trials indicate that the same drugsknown as bisphosphonates used to treat strengthen bone and reduce the complications associated with bone metastases can also be used to prevent bone metastasis and death from breast cancer. However the treatment does not work for all patients and identifying those patients that are most likely to benefit from the treatment is therefore very important. “This is where the discovery made at IRB Barcelona and validated by the current study could be of great use to clinicians and would avoid unnecessary treatment of patients who would not benefit or could be harmed by the treatment,” suggests Prof Gomis, group leader of the Growth Control and Cancer Metastasis.

Globally, about one million new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year. Preventive treatments can have unwanted side effects and come at a cost, making broad administration of the drugs sub-optimal, especially as some patientsmay to be harmed by the treatment. “In order to implement a companion diagnostic, we first need to know which patients may benefit and which ones will not. Our discovery offers a way to distinguish what wasn’t possible before,” confirms Prof Gomis.

For further information: IRB Barcelona website [+] 

► Reference article:
Coleman RE, Hall A, Albanell J, Hanby A, Bell R, Cameron D, Dodwell D, Marshall H, Jean-Mairet J, Tercero JC, Rojo F, Gregory W, and Gomis RR. “Effect of MAF amplification on treatment outcomes with adjuvant zoledronic acid in early breast cancer: a secondary analysis of the internation, open-label, randomised, controlled, phase 3 AZURE (BIG 01/04)” Lancet Oncology (2017) Doi:10.1016/S1470-2045(17)30603-4