Change in lipid composition -An early diagnostic marker for Ca breast?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Can changes in lipid composition be an early diagnostic marker for breast cancer? - An advanced non-invasive magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) study
IRAS ID
204548
Contact name
Patricia Burns
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Aberdeen
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Breast cancer affects 1 in 8 women in their lifetime. After successful surgical treatment, around 20% of breast cancer patients will develop recurrence of their disease within 10 years. It is clear that prevention is valuable in breast cancer, and a target related to the start of breast cancer is essential, so that effective prevention strategies can be devised.\n\nLipids cover a wide range of different fat types with high concentration in fatty adipose tissue, like breast. The various fat types are known to have different physical and regulatory properties in the human body, and certain types of lipids are essential and can only be supplied by dietary intake. Specific category or composition of lipids has been shown to affect hormonal balance and cancer growth. Recently it has been shown that BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutation carriers, a group of people at high-risk of developing breast cancer, present a different lipid composition in their breast tissue.\n\nIn this project, we will investigate if there is a difference in lipid composition between the tumour and healthy contralateral breast of the patients, and if the lipid composition in the healthy contralateral breast in patients is different from that of healthy individuals. Furthermore, we want to understand if the lipid composition is directly linked to the aggressiveness of the cancer.\n\nTo answer these questions, we will recruit 15 breast cancer patients and 15 healthy controls. We will use advanced magnetic resonance methods to find out the lipid composition in the breast of these subjects. The breast cancer removed from the patients will also be analysed using standard and study-specific histological and biochemical methods, so we can estimate the aggressiveness of the cancer, and correlate this with lipid composition.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2
REC reference
16/NS/0077
Date of REC Opinion
12 Sep 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion