Retrospective analysis of banked tissue from Breast Cancer patients.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Early prediction and targeting of Neo-Adjuvant Chemo-Therapy persistent cells in triple negative breast cancer
IRAS ID
312311
Contact name
Robert B Clarke
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Triple Negative Breast Cancers (TNBC) are not sensitive to standard therapies against oestrogen/progesterone receptor (ER/PR) or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). TNBCs are characterized by their fast growing and potential to invade other tissues in the body leading to a poor prognosis. Therefore, identifying specific mechanisms in the way the cells grow will lead to better targeted drug therapies and new drug combinations in an area where there is an urgent clinical need.
Currently, newly diagnosed triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients are treated with chemotherapy before surgery to reduce the tumour size and assess if the tumour is sensitive to the treatment. This response is then used to determine an overall prognosis.
Those patients whose tumours disappear are said to have an excellent long-term survival while those with some tumour remaining have 50% more chance of lethal spread to other tissue that can rapidly progress.
Therefore, the challenge is to identify tumours with changes that allow the tumour to partly survive and the signalling pathways that regulate these changes. Once these can be recognised earlier in the course of treatment a more effective therapy can be given and unnecessary treatment and toxicity avoided.REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
22/NS/0118
Date of REC Opinion
11 Aug 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion