Scientists say they have made a potentially ‘groundbreaking’ breakthrough in breast cancer research after discovering how to store breast tissue outside the body for at least a week.
The research, which was funded by the charity Prevent Breast Cancer, found that tissue could be preserved in a special gel solution, which will help scientists identify the most effective drug treatments for patients.
Experts found that the preserved breast tissue retained its structure, cell types and ability to respond to a range of medications in the same way as normal breast tissue.
The research, published in the Journal of Mammary Gland Biology and Neoplasia, could support the development of new drugs for the treatment and prevention of breast cancer, without the need for testing on animals.
Dr. Hannah Harrison, a research fellow at the University of Manchester, said the discovery would help scientists test the most suitable drugs on living tissue for the treatment and prevention of breast cancer.
She said: “There are several risk-reducing options for women at high risk of developing breast cancer – for example women with a significant family history or who have mutations in the BRCA (breast cancer) genes.
“However, not all medications work for all women. This new approach means we can start to determine which drugs will work for which women, by measuring their impact on living tissue.
“Ultimately, this means women can take the most effective drug for their specific genetic makeup.”
Harrison and her team were able to keep breast tissue viable outside the body for relatively long periods of time. “By testing different hydrogel formulations, we were able to find a solution that preserves human breast tissue for at least a week – and often even longer,” she said.
“In many ways, this is a real game changer for breast cancer research. We can better test drugs for both the prevention and treatment of cancer, and can investigate how factors such as breast density – which we know is a risk factor for breast cancer – respond to certain hormones or chemicals to see if this has an impact on the development of cancer. .”
Scientists used the gel solution VitroGel to preserve the tissue.
In their work, they said that the identification of new drugs was “hindered by a lack of good preclinical models.”
What is available so far “cannot fully recapitulate the complexity of human tissue, as it lacks human extracellular matrix, stroma and immune cells, which are known to influence therapy response,” they said.
Lester Barr, a breast surgeon and founder of Prevent Breast Cancer, said: “Breast cancer mortality is falling in Britain thanks to improved screening and treatment options, but the incidence continues to rise and breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Britain. .
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“It is therefore very important that we develop new prevention and risk reduction options for women, especially those at high risk due to their family history or genetics.
“This breakthrough means researchers can test new drugs in the laboratory with much greater accuracy, which should mean fewer drugs fail in clinical trials and ultimately better outcomes for women affected by this terrible disease.
“It is a hugely exciting development in animal-free research, which puts us in a very strong position to find new medicines to prevent breast cancer.”
On average, almost 56,000 women in Britain are diagnosed with breast cancer every year figures from Cancer Research UK.
Globally, breast cancer is the second most common cancer, accounting for 11.6% of newly diagnosed cancer cases, after lung cancer, which represents 12.4% of new cases, according to the World Health Organization.
But breast cancer survival rates have improved significantly. According to research from the University of Oxford, women diagnosed with early breast cancer are 66% less likely to die from the disease than they were 20 years ago.
Figures from Cancer UK show that 76% of breast cancer patients survive 10 years or more.