Genetic analysis with biochips will improve the diagnosis and prognosis of breast cancer, explained Dr. Jeffrey Green at the University of Navarra's research center Applied Medicine (CIMA). The director of the Transgenics section of the laboratory of Cell Regulation and Carcinogenesis of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) spoke at a seminar of the area of Oncology at CIMA. He spoke about his research, based on the development of genetically modified mice to study breast tumors.

The expert pointed out that "we are starting to use genetic analysis using very sophisticated techniques, such as biochips, which can study the profile of each patient. This has allowed us to learn that breast cancer has many varieties, despite the fact that the different tumors may look the same under the microscope. Thanks to these techniques we can classify patients into subgroups. The additional use of bioinformatics makes it easier to handle all this enormous information to discover new pathways by which altered genes produce these specific types of cancer."

In his opinion, better classifying patients from agreement with the genetic profile of their tumor will lead to improvements in diagnosis, prognosis and, therefore, in the application of more specific therapies.

A long process until its application in patients

Dr. Jeffrey Green outlined the steps of the research: "First, we must identify genes core topic altered in cancer, which constitute new therapeutic targets. Then, design drugs to correct the function of the altered gene in the tumor. We need to perform biochemical programs of study with these potential drugs, then test them in animals, then measure their toxicity, and finally evaluate their antitumor activity in patients."

The NIH's researcher recognizes, on the one hand, the need to use animal models to fight cancer in humans and, on the other hand, the limitation of testing in beings other than humans: "We will be able to find out in which specific aspects they are similar and in which they are different. When we know which genes are altered in a similar way, we will be able to test new drugs directed against these genes more effectively. So far employee has been used, mainly in vitro cultured cells, but it has already been shown that this is not enough to predict the response in patients".