Is lactate a biomarker of tumour metabolism in breast cancer?
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Is lactate concentration a biomarker of tumour metabolism in breast cancer? - An ex vivo study using novel magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) approach.
IRAS ID
192508
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 is a type of cancer that predominantly affects women. In order to satisfy the energy need for rapid growth, breast cancer cells emit signals to trigger the neighbouring tissues to grow their own blood vessels for extra nutrients and oxygen supply. Oxygen is essential in the energy production process, and is markedly diminished due to the increased need. With lower oxygen availability, energy can still be produced to maintain basic metabolism, but this produces less energy with a by-product called lactate. In early breast cancer, this method of energy production is used even when the level of oxygen supply is normal.
Researchers are looking at the link between lactate and grading, but various groups have come back with different answers. Although we can now successfully treat many breast cancer patients, aggressive breast cancers sometimes can travel from the breast to other parts of the body. This is called metastasis, and is linked to poor prognosis.
Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is a method to look at the action of chemicals inside a conventional MRI scanner. The atomic nuclei of each chemical will spin around inside a strong magnetic field according to their characteristic nature, so that we can differentiate one chemical from another. Lactate and fat happen to spin in a similar way, so signals cannot be easily separated. Recently there is a new method that can control the lactate spin more efficiently, and it allows us to find out the amount of lactate in the tissue.
We propose to scan the tumour removed from the patient, and use the above method to look at the lactate concentration. We will also perform histopathological analysis on the cancerous tissue. We will then try to find out if the amount of lactate is different between the less aggressive and more aggressive breast cancers.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NW/0032
Date of REC Opinion
22 Dec 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion