| The recent fall in breast cancer mortality is mainly a result of the addition of drug treatment to local treatment modalities (surgery and radiotherapy). Those patients that die usually succumb to distant metastases for example, in the bones, liver, lungs or other organs. These metastases can, however, be treated with drugs. Because every individual breast cancer is different, it would be desirable to base the choice of drugs on an assay that determines which combination would have the best chance to kill all tumor cells in the body. In the first part of this project, oncologists, scientists and their colleagues from the bio-industry will employ novel methods derived from genetics and protein technology to develop suitably sensitive assays. The methods will be applied in clinical trials that allow the effect of drug combinations on the primary tumor to be directly evaluated and the properties of the tumor associated with response or resistance identified. The second part of the project involves developing imaging techniques that can monitor the effect of the drug therapy on the size and vitality of the tumor, even before surgery takes place. This could answer the question whether the drug is sufficiently effective to eventually kill all cancer cells in the body. An added advantage of the study design is that the imaging techniques developed may also allow a more precise planning of radiation therapy to the breast in cases where breast-conserving surgery has been performed. |
