Directory

Cancer

Sponsored
11 months, 1 week ago

Personalised Medicine

Created by: HealthPad
Directory:
Cancer
Tags:
bowel cancer
cancer care
cancer genome
Dame Deborah James
EUTROC
personalised medicine
personalised treatment

Dame Deborah James, who died aged 40 of bowel cancer, spent the last 5 years of her life raising awareness about her type of cancer, but also fighting to make personalised medicine more widely available for cancer patients.

Personalized medicine is therapy customized for an individual and has become more readily available as the cost of gene sequencing has been significantly reduced. An example is when treatment is targeted to a specific type of cancer cells.

HealthPad had partnered with a consortium of leading cancer specialists to explain what personalised medicine means and what it can do for cancer patients.

The HealthPad Team would like to join the many people who have admired Dame Deborah for her courage and determination.

Thank you and farewell, BowelBabe.

#bowelbabe #damedeborahjames #personalisedmedicine

Mike Birrer

What does personalised medicine mean?

Created by: Mike Birrer
Jaume Reventos

Why is personalised medicine important?

Created by: Jaume Reventos
David Bowtell

In what types of therapies is personalised medicine already being used?

Created by: David Bowtell
David Bowtell

What sets personalised medicine apart from other therapies?

Created by: David Bowtell
Hani Gabra

How does personalised medicine affect the doctor-patient relationship?

Created by: Hani Gabra
Axel Walther

Why is enhanced collaboration between professional bodies important for personalised medicine?

Created by: Axel Walther
David Bowtell

How is personalised medicine implemented?

Created by: David Bowtell
Hani Gabra

How does a doctor know that a personalised therapy is suitable for a patient?

Created by: Hani Gabra
go to cluster
1 year, 4 months ago

World Cancer Day 2022

HealthPad
Directory:
Cancer
Tags:
breast cancer
cancer care
cancer reasearch
commentary
gynaecological cancer
prostate cancer
 
Over the past decade HealthPad has published ~30 Commentaries on significant developments in cancer therapies. On this World Cancer Day, we would like to share our contribution, to show how scientific knowledge and therapies have progressed to improve the lives of people living with cancer. The genesis of the HealthPad platform owes a lot to Professor Hani Gabra, a cancer expert who, together with many of his colleagues, believe that it is important to provide people with easy and convenient access to premium information to help them make informed medical and lifestyle choices and improve patients’ treatment journeys. 
 
 
In addition to our Commentaries, HealthPad has built a unique and exclusive premium cancer content library of >1,100 videos, which address peoples’ frequently asked questions across several cancer pathways. The videos have been contributed by leading oncologists and scientists from world renowned medical institutions across the world and can be accessed anytime, anywhere, anyhow.
 
We reconfirm HealthPad’s commitment in helping to make cancer less scary by empowering people with the knowledge we have gathered and shared in our Commentaries.
view in full page
joined 1 year, 5 months ago

Parkway Cancer Centre

Cancer Treatment Centre
Directory:
Cancer
Expertise:
medical oncology
Oncology
Radiotherapy

Parkway Cancer Centre offers comprehensive cancer treatment in Singapore with a highly skilled, multi-disciplinary team comprising consultant medical specialists, nurses, counsellors and other para-medical professionals to meet the specific needs of cancer patients.


view this profile
joined 2 years, 11 months ago

Ayaansh Hospital

Best Women's Cancer Hospital | Cancer Specialist in Bangalore
Directory:
Cancer
Expertise:
cancer biology

Ayaansh is the Best Women's Cancer Hospital in Bangalore to offer all types of Gyne Cancer Treatment by the Women's Cancer Specialist in Bangalore.


view this profile
3 years, 4 months ago

Will behavioural techniques improve breast cancer outcomes?

HealthPad
Directory:
Cancer
Tags:
behavioural techniques
breast cancer
breast cancer treatment
cancer research
commentary
  • The burden of breast cancer throughout the world is significant and increasing
  • Research has shown that a cheap pill (anastrozole) halves postmenopausal women’s risk of breast cancer and continues to be effective seven years after women stop taking the drug
  • Anastrozole has fewer side-effects and is more effective than comparable treatments
  • Government watchdogs both in the UK and US recommend anastrozole
  • But the uptake of the drug in the UK is relatively low
  • Doctors are not prescribing anastrozole and women are not availing themselves of the drug
  • The UK’s NHS should employ new behavioural techniques to influence and change doctors’ and patients’ decisions and increase the uptake of anastrozole to reduce the burden of breast cancer

Will behavioural techniques improve breast cancer outcomes?
 
Being a woman and growing older are two unavoidable risk factors for breast cancer. Indeed, most breast cancers are found in women who are 50 years or older. Despite significant advances in diagnoses and treatments, breast cancer is one of the rapidly increasing cancers among women and a significant cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality worldwide.  Breast cancer alone accounts for 30% of all new cancer diagnoses among females and has become a major 21st century health challenge.
 
Study shows long term benefits of a cheap breast cancer pill

Research findings reported in the December 2019 edition of The Lancet and also presented at the  December 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in Texas, show that a cheap pill, anastrozole,  if taken once a day for 5 years, not only halves postmenopausal women’s risk of breast cancer, but continues to be effective seven years after stopping treatment, which for the first time, suggests a long-term benefit.
 
Relatively low uptake
 
The UK’s NHS watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), suggests that hundreds of thousands of healthy older women should take anastrozole to cut their risk of breast cancer and recommends that the drug is offered to postmenopausal women at moderate to high risk of breast cancer unless they have severe osteoporosis. However, evidence suggests that some doctors in the UK are not prescribing anastrozole and some women are not availing themselves of the drug despite its demonstrated clinical benefits and the fact that anastrozole is supported by NICE.
 
Jack Cuzick, the lead author of The Lancet 2019 paper, who is Professor of Epidemiology and the Director of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine at Queen Mary University, London, is concerned because although anastrozole is, “An agent that looks really effective with minimal side-effects and is available on the NHS in the UK; its uptake has been quite low with only a tenth of eligible women receiving it”. Cuzick’s concerns are echoed by Delyth Jane Morgan, Chief Executive of the charity Breast Cancer Now, who said: "It is worrying to hear that anastrozole may not be being offered to all that could benefit. We need to understand the extent of this potential issue. It's essential that we raise awareness of this option among doctors and patients".
 
 In this Commentary
 
Part 1 of this Commentary explores some of the reasons for the relatively low uptake of anastrozole. Part 2 describes new behavioural techniques, which could be cheaply and easily employed by health systems to increase the uptake of anastrozole and dent the burden of breast cancer. Also the Commentary: (i) describes breast cancer, (ii) provides some epidemiological facts of the disease, (iii) estimates the cost to treat breast cancer in the UK, (iv) describes hormone receptor positive breast cancer, (v) explains how anastrozole works and (vi) reports the findings of The Lancet 2019 study.

 
Part 1
 
 
Breast cancer
 
Cancer is a group of diseases that cause cells in your body to change and spread out of control. Most types of cancer cells eventually form a lump or mass called a tumour and are named after the part of your body where the tumour originates.

 

Breast cancer is characterized by the presence of cancer cells in the tissue or ducts of your breast. Most breast cancers begin either in the breast tissue made up of glands for milk production, called lobules, or in the ducts that connect the lobules to the nipple. The remainder of the breast is made up of fatty, connective and lymphatic tissues. Advanced breast cancer refers to cancer that has spread outside of your breast to lymph nodes and/or distant locations in your body, often invading your vital organs.
You might also like:
 
Epidemiology of breast cancer
 
Breast cancer is a common malignancy. Although more and more women are surviving the disease, each year in the UK there are over 55,000 new breast cancer cases: which equates to over 1,000 diagnosed each week. In the US, there are some 250,000 new breast cancer cases diagnosed each year: nearly 5,000 a week. Between 1993 and 2016 the incidence of breast cancer in the UK increased by 24%. Over a similar period, breast cancer incidence in the US declined, but an increasing trend of some 1.1% was observed among American Asians. In China, between 2000 to 2013, breast cancer increased at an annual rate of around 3.5%. Breast cancer rates in China are higher in urban areas than in rural areas: the higher the population density, the higher the rate. It is not altogether clear why breast cancer incidence is increasing. Experts suggest that breast cancer is a complicated disease with a variety of causes. Most cases of the disease are not linked to a family history. Around 5% of people diagnosed with breast cancer have inherited a faulty BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. However, if you have a faulty gene, it does not mean that you will automatically develop breast cancer, but you are at higher risk. Out of every 100 women with a faulty gene, between 40 and 85 will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. Optimal therapy for breast cancer often requires several different treatment modalities including surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and hormone therapy (see below).
 
Cost of breast cancer treatment in the UK
 
The cost of treating breast cancer in the UK is significant and rising. Findings of research on the treatment costs of breast cancer published in the August 1999 edition of The Breast estimated that the average cost per case of breast cancer in the UK to be £7,247 (US$9,418).  Although the estimate is dated, it provides a guide. With 55,000 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed each year, the annual cost of treating the newly diagnosed alone, would be about £0.4bn (US$0.52bn). According to the UK charity Breast Cancer Now, an estimated 840,000  women  living in the UK have been diagnosed with breast cancer and the charity predicts that this figure will increase to 1.2m over the next decade. Thus, ceteris paribus, we can assume that the current annual cost  of treating breast cancer in the UK is significantly higher than £0.4bn and this figure is expected to increase substantially by 2030.
  
Hormones and hormone therapy
 
Hormones are chemical messengers secreted directly into your bloodstream, which carry them to organs and tissues of your body to exercise their functions.  Oestrogen and progesterone are steroid hormones produced by the ovaries in premenopausal women and by some other tissues, including fat and skin, in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. These hormones play a critical role in regulating reproduction. Oestrogen promotes the development and maintenance of female sex characteristics and the growth of long bones. Progesterone plays a role in the menstrual cycle and pregnancy.
 
Similar hormones are produced artificially either for use in oral contraceptives or to treat menopausal and menstrual disorders. Oestrogen and progesterone also promote the growth of some breast cancers, which are called hormone-sensitive (or hormone-dependent) breast cancers. Hormone-sensitive breast cancer cells contain proteins called hormone receptors, which become activated when hormones bind to them. The activated receptors cause changes in the expression of specific genes that can stimulate cell growth.
 
Anastrozole is a hormone therapy (also called hormonal therapy and endocrine therapy), which slows or stops the growth of hormone-sensitive tumours by either blocking the body’s ability to produce hormones or by interfering with the effects of hormones on breast cancer cells. Anastrozole blocks a process called aromatisation, which changes sex hormones called androgens into oestrogen. This happens mainly in the fatty tissues, muscle and the skin and needs a particular enzyme called aromatase.
 
 Prescribing anastrozole
 
Anastrozole belongs to a group of drugs called aromatase inhibitors, which are specifically designed to treat postmenopausal women diagnosed with hormone-receptor-positive, early-stage breast cancer.  It is most often prescribed as an adjuvant therapy (after surgery) to decrease the risk of your cancer returning but can also be used in the neoadjuvant setting (prior to surgery) to decrease the size of your cancer in the breast. Hormone blocking therapy is also used to treat breast cancer that has recurred or spread. Most hormone blocking therapy drugs such as anastrozole are taken daily in pill form.
 
Anastrozole also may be given to reduce the risk of breast cancer in women who have not had breast cancer but have an increased risk of developing it because of their family history. Most experts suggest that your breast cancer risk should be higher than average for you to consider taking anastrozole as a preventative strategy. If your cancer is hormone receptor negative, then anastrozole will not be of any benefit, because these cancers do not need oestrogen to grow and usually such cancer cells do not stop growing when treated with hormones that block oestrogen from binding.
 
Reasons for the relatively low uptake of anastrozole
 
There are at least three probably reasons for the relatively low uptake of anastrozole. These include: (i) doctors becoming so used to prescribing the gold standard tamoxifen as an adjuvant hormone therapy, (ii) doctors wanting to be convinced about anastrozole’s long term benefits, and (iii) doctors wanting assurance about anastrozole’s minimal side effects.
  
Tamoxifen
 
Tamoxifen is the oldest and most-prescribed aromatase inhibitor and for the past three decades has become the standard of care as the adjuvant treatment of postmenopausal women with hormone-responsive early breast cancer. The drug reduces the risk of breast cancer returning by 40% to 50% in postmenopausal women and by 30% to 50% in premenopausal women. Notwithstanding, over the past two decades a new generation of aromatase inhibitors have been developed, and anastrozole is one of these. How does anastrozole compare with the gold standard tamoxifen?

Tamoxifen and anastrozole compared
 
Findings of two long-term comparative clinical studies undertaken in North America and Europe involving over 1,000 women with oestrogen receptor positive advanced breast cancer, showed that anastrozole is better than tamoxifen for: (i) increasing the time before the cancer returns in those who experience recurrence, (ii) reducing the risk of the cancer spreading to other parts of the body and (iii) reducing the risk of a new cancer developing in the other breast.

Significantly, studies have shown that anastrozole avoids two of tamoxifen's more serious side-effects: an increased risk of developing a blood-clotting disease and an increased risk of developing womb cancer.  Anastrozole can make bones weaker and so it is not recommended for women with osteoporosis and also it can cause stiff joints, hot flushes and vaginal dryness, which clinicians need to recognize and manage. But overall, the benefits of anastrozole over tamoxifen were maintained without a detrimental impact on quality of life. However, anastrozole is not a therapy for  premenopausal women because it blocks the hormone oestrogen and in effect creates a drug-induced menopause.


Part 2

Increasing the uptake of anastrozole
 
For healthcare systems to function effectively and efficiently we expect doctors and patients to behave rationally and make effective and efficient decisions. Traditionally, the rational choice model, which is predicated upon the belief that all human beings (including doctors and patients) act rationally in their own self-interest, has been used to influence people to behave in desirable ways. However, evidence suggests that, despite the well-founded theory and sound evidence to support it, the rational choice approach does not appear to work that well in practice.



You might also like:

Behavioral scientists not doctors will prevent CVD
 A newer theory to explain peoples’ choices and behaviours
 
A newer approach to influencing behaviour, which builds on decades of research by Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman, and described in a book published in 2008 entitled Nudge, by Nobel Prize winning economist Richard Thaler and Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein, suggests that no choice is ever presented in a neutral way and people - including doctors and patients - are susceptible to biases that can lead them to make suboptimal decisions. The authors suggest that many decisions and consequent behaviours are made automatically rather than after a considered rational decision. And this applies to decisions about your health.
Policymakers have been quick to latch onto the possibilities of these new behavioural techniques. Following the publication of Thaler and Sunstein’s book in 2008, President Obama set up a “Nudge Unit” in the White House and the UK Government, under Prime Minister David Cameron, set up the Behavioural Insights Team, popularly known as the Nudge Unit, in 10 Downing Street, and other governments around the world have since followed suit.

Nudges
 
Nudges are particular types of interventions, which are used to change peoples’ behaviour and improve outcomes at lower cost than traditional tools across a range of policy areas. Nudge techniques have been used in healthcare to influence behaviour and decision making to improve patient outcomes. For instance, the behavioural analysis of the decision-making that leads to a patient taking one drug instead of another. A research paper published in 2015 by the UK’s Health Foundation entitled “Behavioural insights in healthcare” suggests that health messages are often inconsistent and confusing to patients and framing them using social comparison via descriptive social norms (pointing out what is commonly done) or using injunctive norms (pointing out what is approved of) has been demonstrated to change patients’ behaviour and thereby have the potential to improve patient outcomes.
 
Information design
 
Behavioural techniques suggest that more attention should be given to the design of health information because the design and the way information is presented can influence and change doctors' and patients’ behaviour. Clinical guidelines, patients’ checklists and decision aids can all be improved in terms of text and language (e.g. the use of “plain English” and behaviourally specific, concrete statements and presentation of risk) and appearance (e.g. colour, visual stimuli, images etc).
 
HealthPad advocates that health information can have significantly more influence on the choices that doctors and patients make and on their  behaviour simply by presenting critical information in a video format. Over the past few decades people have moved away from consuming information in written and audio formats to consuming information predominantly in a visual format.  
 
Shift to consuming information in video format
 
Consider the following as being indicative of this shift. 82% of Twitter’s 330m average monthly users consume information in video format. The video channel You Tube has over a billion users and more than 500m hours of video are watched on the channel each day. 72 hours of video are uploaded to You Tube every 60 seconds, and more video content is uploaded onto the channel in 30 days than the major US television networks have created in 30 years. To further put things into perspective, in 2017, 56 exabytes (equivalent to 1bn gigabytes) of internet video content was consumed on a monthly basis, and this figure is expected to more than quadruple to 240 exabytes per month by 2022.

Today, almost all industries,  with the exception of healthcare, use video formats to communicate and the overwhelming majority of people who have consumed information in video format say it has influenced their choices and changed their behaviour. With video becoming the most significant influence on consumer decisions, it seems reasonable to suggest that more health information needs to be communicated in a video format if it is to influence and change doctors’ and patients’ behaviours in order to improve medical outcomes, increase the quality of care and slow and prevent chronic lifetime diseases.
 
Prompts cues reminders and audits
 
Prompts, cues and reminders have been demonstrated to be generally effective “nudges” that can successfully change the behaviour of healthcare providers and consumers, as well as being relatively inexpensive and easy to administer. Audit and feedback “nudges” are also effective. A set of best practices derived from systematic review evidence suggests that various nudge-type interventions (notably information design and presentation) may offer new ways to enhance choices and change behaviour.
  
Takeaways
 
The burden of breast cancer is huge and increasing globally. Research has demonstrated that a cheap pill, anastrozole, halves postmenopausal women’s risk of the disease and continues to be effective seven years after women stop taking the drug. We suggest that healthcare systems should consider using new behavioural techniques to influence and change doctors' and patients’ decisions to increase the uptake of anastrozole to help reduce the burden of breast cancer. Evidence suggests that nudge-type interventions, if suitably applied, can influence and change the behaviour of doctors and patients and thereby contribute to the reduction of the burden of breast cancer. However, given the newness of these techniques the quality of evidence available about their impact is relatively thin and patchy. Notwithstanding, this suggests a need for more quality evaluation and synthesised evidence of nudge-type interventions, their behaviour change potential and their impact on reducing the burden of breast cancer and other chronic lifetime diseases.
view in full page
joined 3 years, 4 months ago

Dr Mohit Saxena Cancer Specialist

Best Cancer Specialist Gurgaon
Directory:
Cancer
Expertise:
advanced stage cancer
cancer specialist
clinical oncology

Dr. Mohit brings,cancer specialist in Gurgaon has over 13 years of experience in oncology across some of the best hospitals in India such as Artemis Hospital (Gurgaon), VPS Rockland Hospitals (Manesar & New Delhi), Gujarat Cancer & Research Institute (Ahmedabad), and G.C.S. Medical College & Hospital (Ahmedabad). He completed his MBBS and MD in Medicine from Sawai Man Singh Medical College (Jaipur) and DM in Medical Oncology from Gujarat Cancer Research Institute (Ahmedabad). He holds a number of achievements, presentations and publications to his credit. His areas of interest include solid malignancies like breast, colon, lung, prostate, etc. and hematological malignancies like leukemias, lymphoma, and myeloma.


view this profile
joined 3 years, 5 months ago

Dr Rakesh Chopra Oncologist

Best Oncologist in Gurgaon
Directory:
Cancer
Expertise:
advanced cancer
Chemotherapy
surgical oncology

Dr. Rakesh Chopra- Best surgical oncologist in Gurgaon, is among the pioneers of medical oncology in India with more than 43 years of extensive experience.
he had been a visiting fellow at multiple international universities and was awarded the prestigious fellowship ‘The Varoon Mahajan Foundation’ for study on Bone Marrow Transplant at the Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center.
Dr Rakesh has exceptional expertise in solid cancers including breast cancer, cancers in women, and cancer of the lung, prostate & colon. He also specializes in hemato oncology.
He also specializes in precision cancer medicine, cancer genetics, palliative cancer treatment, and advanced chemotherapy treatment.


view this profile
3 years, 5 months ago

Finding the Holy Grail: early detection tests for cancer

HealthPad
Directory:
Cancer
Tags:
autoantibody biomarkers
biomarker
cancer reasearch
commentary
liquid biopsy
  • Bioengineers throughout the world are competing to achieve the Holy Grail: an affordable, point-of-care blood test - liquid biopsy - that detects cancer before any symptoms present
  • Success in achieving this will save millions of lives, substantially reduce healthcare costs and make investors, researchers and organisations billions
  • Despite significant advances no one has yet achieved the Holy Grail and there remains a substantial gap between researchers’ aspirations and reality
  • How close are we?

 
 

Finding the Holy Grail: early detection tests for cancer
 

 

“It’s too soon to even claim that the research is promising," commented Paul Pharoah, a professor at Cambridge University’s Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology, on the research findings of  Daniyah Alfattani, a PhD student in the Centre of Excellence for Autoimmunity in Cancer (CEAC) at Nottingham University’s School of Medicine in the UK.
 
Alfattani was presenting research findings of a small study at the National Cancer Research Institute’s (NCRI) conference in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2019, which is an international forum for showcasing cancer advances.
 
A September 2019 HealthPad Commentary described another early detection test for breast cancer called CanRisk, which has been developed by researchers from Cambridge University’s Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology and  has the potential to identify women with different levels of risk of breast cancer.
 
Alfattani and bioengineers from the universities of Nottingham and Cambridge are players in a vast and rapidly evolving international army of researchers engaged in an intensely competitive global race to develop an affordable, point-of-care, early detection test (EDT) for cancer based upon a liquid biopsy and next generation sequencing technologies. The Holy Grail is for such a test to detect cancer cells in an asymptomatic patient, locate the tissue of origin and give that person an early diagnosis when treatment is more likely to be successful; and to do all this with 100% accuracy. 

Although Alfattani’s research study is modest, her findings are potentially clinically relevant because they are on the Holy Grail therapeutic pathway, and her preliminary findings suggest that a simple, cheap and easy-to-use blood test - liquid biopsy - could detect breast cancer five years before any symptoms present. If demonstrated to be exquisitely accurate, safe and efficient by a larger study, which already is underway at Nottingham University’s CEAC, Alfattani’s research could be a key to saving thousands of lives and substantial amounts of money.

 

Gold standard breast cancer screening
 
Currently, mammography screening is the gold standard for preventing and controlling breast cancer, which is costly to administer and only has a sensitivity between 72% and 87%.  For every death from breast cancer that is prevented by mammography screening, it is estimated there are three false-positive cases detected and treated unnecessarily. Further, nearly half of all cancer sufferers are diagnosed late, when their tumours have already metastasized. It is estimated that 30% to 40% of cancer deaths could be prevented by early detection and treatment.
 
In this Commentary
 
This Commentary provides a partial update of some bioengineering initiatives described in a 2016 HealthPad Commentary, to speed up and improve liquid biopsies, which can simultaneously detect cancer early and identify its tissue of origin. Although there have been significant developments, the challenge for liquid biopsy assays still remains the level of their positive predictive values. This Commentary provides a brief and partial epidemiology of breast cancer, describes Alfattani’s research and its findings and briefly mentions some similar research that is underway. We describe categories of biomarkers employed by researchers and indicate some advances in EDTs made by some giant biopharma companies as well as briefly describing another innovative university-based development. We conclude by suggesting that: (i) despite significant and well supported research endeavours over the past decade to develop EDTs, there still remains a gap between scientific aspirations and reality; and (ii) there appears to be a gap opening between commercially available personalised cancer therapies, which are by-products of EDT research and standard oncological therapies.
 
Partial epidemiology of breast cancer
 
Despite significant advances in the awareness, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, it still remains the most common cancer in women worldwide, contributing 25.4% of the total number of new cases of cancer diagnosed in 2018. Each year, more than 0.5m women throughout the world die from the condition.  In the US each year, over 268,000 new cases of invasive breast cancer are diagnosed in women, and over 41,000 women die from breast cancer. Between 1989 and 2016, death rates from female breast cancer in the US dropped by 40%. Over the past decade, death rates from breast cancer in older women in the US continued to decrease but remained steady in women under 50. Such decreases are attributed to increased awareness of the condition, earlier detection through screening and improved treatments. In the UK, there are over 55,000 new breast cancer cases diagnosed each year. In contrast to the US, since the early 1990s, breast cancer incidence rates in the UK have increased by around 19%, but death rates have fallen because of greater awareness, earlier detection and enhanced therapies. Notwithstanding, each year more than 11,000 women in the UK die from breast cancer. Furthermore, each year in the US, there are over 1.7m new diagnoses of all cancers, while in the UK there are over 360,000 new cases. Although recent advances in EDTs have the potential to decrease cancer deaths, as yet there is not a simple and cheap liquid biopsy, which can be used routinely  in clinics to diagnose a range of cancers early. .
 
Alfattani’s research
 
The research pursued by Alfattani and her Nottingham colleagues is predicated upon the fact that cancer cells produce proteins called antigens, which trigger the body to make antibodies against them. These are called “autoantibodies”. Researchers discovered that these tumour-associated antigens (TAAs) are good indicators (biomarkers) of cancer. Alfattani and her colleagues developed panels of TAAs, which are known to be linked with breast cancer as a technique to detect whether or not there are autoantibodies against them in blood samples taken from patients.

The Nottingham researchers took blood samples from 90 breast cancer patients at the time they were diagnosed with the disease and matched them with samples taken from 90 patients without breast cancer (the control group). Researchers employed technology (protein microarray), which allowed them to screen the blood samples for the presence of autoantibodies against 40 TAAs associated with breast cancer and also 27 TAAs not known to be linked with the disease. The accuracy of the test improved in the panels that contained more TAAs.

Findings

A panel of five TAAs correctly detected breast cancer in 29% of the samples from the cancer patients and correctly identified 84% of the control group as being cancer-free. A panel of seven TAAs was able to detect disease in 35% of cases with breast cancer and rule out 79% of patients in the control group. The most successful technique was a panel of nine antigens, which correctly identified the disease in 37% of cancer samples and no cancer in 79% of the controls. “The results of our study showed that breast cancer does induce autoantibodies against panels of specific tumour-associated antigens. . . . . The results are encouraging and indicate that it is possible to detect a signal for early breast cancer. Once we have improved the accuracy of the test, then it opens the possibility of using a simple blood test to improve early detection of the disease”, said Alfattani.

David Crosby, head of early detection at the Cancer Research UK charity, said, “Diagnosing cancer at the earliest stages before it grows or spreads gives patients the best chance that their treatment will be successful. So, the potential to detect markers in the blood before other signs appear is promising”.
 
Similar studies
 
Nottingham University’s CEAC is also working on similar tests to that used by Alfattani for pancreatic, colorectal and liver cancers. Solid tumours like these, as well as lung and breast cancer, represent around 70% of all cancers. Further, a similar test for lung cancer is currently being tested in a randomised controlled clinical study in Scotland, which is believed to be the largest trial of its kind in the world, involving 12,000 people at high risk of developing lung cancer because they smoke.
You might also like:
 
Participants in the study have been randomly assigned to two groups: one is given an autoantibody blood test and the other (the control group ) is not. Participants who test positive for the autoantibodies are then followed up with a CT scan every two years in order to detect lung cancer in its early stages when it is easier to treat. Findings suggest that the test detects lung cancer four years or more before standard clinical diagnosis. In the UK about 85% of lung cancer patients are left undiagnosed until the disease has spread to other parts of the body.

 

Liquid biopsies

 
Liquid biopsies require biomarkers, which are substances, structures, or processes in your body that can be analysed in order to explain the pathogenesis of cancer and other disease states, and thereby inform diagnosis, predict onset and suggest appropriate therapies. Notwithstanding, the multiple types of biomarkers have varying degrees of reliability. Initially, the principal focus of research into EDTs was largely focussed on circulating tumour cells (CTC) and DNA. More recently however, additional biomarkers have become an important focus for such research. Antibodies are just one type of molecular biomarker. Because antibodies function by binding specific antigens, attempts to identify antibody biomarkers have involved using antigens to capture antibodies that are overproduced in cancer. Identifying relevant antigens is critical for discovering antibody biomarkers. Array-based approaches employed by Alfattani and her colleagues depend on exposing serum samples from patients to an ordered array of putative antigens, capturing those antibodies that bind antigens on the arrays and measuring their levels. Antibodies that are present at significantly higher levels in the serum of patients with breast cancer, (compared to control serums from healthy patients) are candidate biomarkers. 
 
Because of the unreliability of such biomarkers, new liquid biopsy tests tend to be predicated upon the levels of cell-free DNA (cfDNA), circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) and exosomes. These also pose challenges because of the varying physiological levels of the different biomarker fragments in your bloodstream.
cfDNA refers to DNA molecules that circulate in your blood after cell death. The amount of cfDNA varies significantly depending on the location, type and stage of your cancer. Concentrations of cfDNA can range from 1 to 100,000 fragments per ml of blood.
ctDNA refers to DNA that comes from cancerous cells and is present in your bloodstream. As a tumour grows, your cells die and are replaced by new cells. Your dead cells decompose and their contents, including DNA, are released into your bloodstream. So, ctDNA are small fragments of DNA, the quantity of which varies between individuals and the location, type and stage of your cancerous tumour. Detection of single mutations in ctDNA requires a large volume of blood. The principal challenge of research predicated upon ctDNA is their relatively low abundance in your bloodstream. As a consequence, scientists cannot rely solely on ctDNA, and are forced to search for other genetic and epigenetic mutations in your blood.
Exosomes is another class of biomarker. Cancer related exosomes are nano-size membrane vesicles that play important roles in tumour microenvironment. A 2007 paper in Nature Cell Biology suggested that exosomes can load unique cargoes, including proteins and nucleic acids that reflect the condition of a tumour. Since the 2007 Nature paper, research into exosomes has increased and they are now being used as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for various cancers. 
 
CancerSEEK
 
An innovative liquid biopsy called CancerSEEK, which has been developed by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, in Baltimore, USA, is expected to make early cancer detection a part of routine medical care. Significantly, the test screens for eight common cancers, which account for more than 60% of all cancer deaths in the US. Currently, five of the cancers covered by the test have no screening test. CancerSEEK combines cutting-edge liquid biopsy technology with a machine learning engine, which is expected to improve the test’s accuracy with every person it screens. Findings of a retrospective study of multiple cancer types published in the February 2018 edition of the journal Science suggested that CancerSEEK has a sensitivity between 69% and 98% for ovarian, liver, stomach, pancreatic and oesophageal cancers, a specificity of 99%. Further, the study suggested that the test  has a false-positive rate of less than 1%. In 2019, CancerSEEK received Breakthrough Device designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the detection of genetic mutations and proteins associated with pancreatic and ovarian cancers, and also raised US$110m to launch a start-up company to develop the technology further.
 
FDA approval for a liquid biopsy developed by Roche
 
In June 2016, Roche, a global biopharma, became the first company to receive FDA approval of a liquid biopsy test to detect mutations associated with non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC). Notwithstanding, the biopsy is not a universal test to detect the presence of NSCLC, but rather a test, which is being used in people with lung cancer to enhance personalised targeted therapies, and to monitor progression of the cancer. Some patients may benefit from the test's accompanying drug erlotinib (Tarceva), which treats NSCLC.
 
In September 2019, Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, announced positive results from the first prospective phase II/III clinical study to use a liquid biopsy and next generation sequencing to select treatment for people with NSCLC, without the need for a tissue biopsy. Next-generation sequencing facilitates the analysis of minute quantities of cfDNA circulating in the blood. In addition, Genentech is using machine learning algorithms on large data sets to characterize the molecular signatures of various cancer types.
 
Guardant and GRAIL
 
Previous HealthPad Commentaries have described research endeavours by Guardant Health  and GRAIL, which are “betting-on” liquid biopsies. Here briefly we update the developments of these two giant biopharma companies.

You might also like:


AstraZeneca’s strategy to target early cancer
In 2014 Guardant launched a next generation sequencing cfDNA assay called Guardant360 for treatment selection in a number of solid tumour cancers. In December 2018, the company launched an assay referred to as LUNAR to detect a range of early stage and recurrent cancers. LUNAR is based on data that Guardant collected from 80,000 advanced cancer patients using its 360 technology. In October 2019, the company launched ECLIPSE, a 10,000-patient clinical study to evaluate the performance of a second generation LUNAR blood test to detect colorectal cancer (CRC) in average-risk adults. The study is intended to improve CRC screening rates by offering a simpler liquid biopsy that overcomes challenges associated with current testing methods described above.
GRAIL has developed a prototype cfDNA sequencing assay to detect a range of cancers, many of which are not screened today and often present at late stages. Significantly, GRAIL has developed a prospective, observational, longitudinal clinical study called the Circulating Cell-free Genome Atlas (CCGA). The study has 15,000 participants across 142 sites in the US and Canada and has been designed to characterize the landscape of genomic cancer biomarkers of people with and without cancer. The company’s STRIVE study is fully enrolled with approximately 115,000 women and another study called SUMMIT also is fully enrolled with approximately 50,000 men and women aged 50 and older who do not have a cancer diagnosis at the time of enrolment.
 
Despite advancing technologies, FDA approvals, ongoing clinical studies and large and increasing investments in the development of liquid biopsies, (see a paper published in the June 2019 edition of Clinical and Translational Science entitled, “The Labyrinth of Product Development and Regulatory Approvals in Liquid Biopsy Diagnostics”) there remains a substantial gap between scientific aspirations and reality. Liquid biopsies still do not provide physicians with a reliable, point-of-care means to detect cancer early and become a reliable substitute for the more invasive and more expensive gold standard tissue biopsy.
 
Takeaways
 
Liquid biopsies represent a large and rapidly evolving area of bioengineering. There are hundreds of research papers published in peer reviewed medical journals, which describe findings of the latest research in this area. Oncologists involved in EDT research are familiar with genomics, the molecular properties of cancer tumours and commercially available innovative therapies, which are by-products of EDT research, but many oncologists are not. This difference of knowhow seems to be creating another gap  between certain personalised cancer therapies advocated by research oncologists and standard cancer management provided in many clinics. Closing these gaps is partly contingent upon continued and open EDT research and more effective education.
view in full page
3 years, 8 months ago

A new comprehensive gene-based breast cancer prediction device

HealthPad
Directory:
Cancer
Tags:
BRCA genes
breast cancer
cancer genetics
cancer prediction
commentary
genome sequencing
mammography
  • CanRisk is a new online gene-based health-risk evaluation algorithm for detecting breast cancer
  • It identifies people with different levels of risk of breast cancer, not just those at high risk
  • As the infotech and biotech revolutions merge expect authority in medicine to be transferred to algorithms
  • CanRisk has the potential to provide a cheap, rapid, non-invasive, highly sensitive and accurate diagnosis before symptoms present
  • Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and is the 5th most common cause of death from cancer in women
  • Currently mammography screening, which has a sensitivity between 72% and 87%, is the gold standard for preventing and controlling breast cancer
  • For every death from breast cancer that is prevented by screening, it is estimated there will be three false-positive cases that are detected and treated unnecessarily
  • Lack of resources do not support breast cancer screening in many regions of the world where the incidence rates of the disease are rapidly increasing
  • In the near-term expect interest in the CanRisk algorithm to increase
 
 A new comprehensive gene-based breast cancer prediction device

 
A new online gene-based health-risk evaluation device called CanRisk has the potential to identify women with different levels of risk of breast cancer; not just women who are at high risk. Predicated on a comprehensive algorithm, CanRisk is one of several innovations currently in development, which include novel methods for predicting the recurrence of breast cancer, a new class of molecules that aim to halt or destroy breast cancer, and liquid biopsies, which determine the presence and recurrent risk of the disease through the detection of tumour cells in peoples’ blood.
 
Although over the past two decades there have been significant improvements in the detection and treatment of breast cancer, the disease remains the most common cancer in women worldwide, with some 1.7m new cases diagnosed each year, which account for about 25% of all cancers in women and it is the fifth most common cause of death from cancer in women, with over 0.52m deaths each year.
 
Game changer for breast cancer
 
Findings of CanRisk were reported in the January 2019 edition of Genetics in Medicine. Findings of a less comprehensive version of the device’s algorithm were published in the July 2016 edition of the same journal. Commenting on the 2019 study, Antonis Antoniou, Professor of Cancer Risk Prediction at the University of Cambridge and lead author of the two studies said: "This is the first time that anyone has combined so many elements into one breast cancer prediction tool. It could be a game changer for breast cancer and help doctors to tailor the care they provide depending on their patients' level of risk”.
 
When fully developed and approved, CanRisk will be well positioned to provide a cheap, rapid, non-invasive, highly sensitive and accurate diagnostic test to detect breast cancer early in people with diverse levels of risk. This might be expected to provide an alternative to the current gold standard population-based mammography screening and assist in making a significant dent in the vast and escalating global burden of the disease.
 
In this Commentary
 
This Commentary describes the algorithm that drives CanRisk, which benefits from the increasing availability of vast and growing amounts of genomic and other personal data and significant advances in genomic sequencing technologies. The confluence of these two phenomena facilitates and enhances the quality and speed of data analysis and drives the development of new and innovative diagnostic and prognostic cancer technologies. The fact that CanRisk is based on UK data and its algorithm is available to researchers globally, presents a potential  opportunity for medical research organizations in emerging regions of the world where the burden of breast cancer is increasing. The Commentary briefly describes the heterogeneous nature of breast cancer and highlights some of its complexities and risk factors. Originally perceived as a Western disease, breast cancer is growing rapidly in Asia and other regions of the world where it tends to be detected late and managed less effectively. Developed economies prevent and manage breast cancer through well-established population-based mammography screening programs. Because of  the lack of resources,  such screening programs are not widely available in low to middle income countries (LMIC). As the infotech and biotech revolutions merge expect authority in medicine to be transferred to Big Data algorithms such as CanRisk. This not only could provide an alternative to gold standard mammography screening, but also provide a cheap and effective device for use in developing nations where the burden of breast cancer is significant and increasing.
 
CanRisk: a world first
 
CanRisk, developed by members of the Centre for Cancer Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Cambridge, UK, takes advantage of discoveries in both cancer genomics and epidemiology and aims to become a popular device used by primary care physicians, in consultation with their patients, to effectively assess patients’ diverse levels of risk of developing breast cancer. The device is predicated on an algorithm called BOADICEA (the Breast and Ovarian Analysis of Disease Incidence and Carrier Estimation Algorithm). This is the world’s first polygenic breast cancer risk model and the only one to-date, which is available to the international research community. Also, it is the first breast cancer risk model to incorporate pathology data and population-specific cancer incidences in risk calculations. The algorithm accounts for over 300 genetic risk factors, including BRCA1, [BReast CAncer gene] BRCA2, PALB2, CHEK2, and ATM, which are genes that have been found to impact a person’s chances of developing breast cancer. The device uses a Polygenic Risk Score (PRS) based on 313 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), [SNPs, pronounced ‘snips’, are the most common types of genetic variation in people. Each SNP represents a difference in a single DNA building block and is called a nucleotide] which explains 20% of breast cancer polygenic variance. CanRisk also includes a residual polygenic component, which accounts for other genetic/familial effects; known lifestyle/hormonal/reproductive risk factors and mammographic density [Dense breast tissue can make it harder to evaluate mammographic results and may also be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer].

 

Authority increasingly being transferred to algorithms
 
Over the past two decades we have increasingly learnt to accept the authority of Big Data algorithms. For example, without question we expect algorithms to give us directions, tell us what movies to watch, who to date, what clothes to wear, where to go on holiday, what flight to take, what hotel to stay in and where to eat. We are  comfortable with algorithms assigning us our credit rating, limiting our overdraft and capping our payments. Furthermore, we are beginning to accept the authority of algorithms in medicine. For example, we are gradually replacing the authority of primary care doctors with algorithms that can diagnose common diseases more accurately and more cost effectively.


You might also be interested in:

China’s rising MedTech industry and the dilemma facing Western companies
In December 2018, for the first time in history, the US FDA approved an algorithm to diagnose patients without a doctor’s interpretation. The algorithm, called IDx-DR, detects diabetic retinopathy by analysing images of the back of the eye. Indeed, we are living on the cusp of history when the twin revolutions of information technology and biotechnology are merging and providing the basis for us to transfer authority in medicine to algorithms. In the next two decades, it seems reasonable to assume that it will become common practice to accept the authority of algorithms such as CanRisk, which will inform us that we are suffering from a medical condition long before we present any signs or symptoms.
 
Increasing supply of data
 
CanRisk takes advantage of the fact that genetic and other risk factor data are becoming more easily available in clinical practice through electronic health records, biometric sensors that convert biological processes into electronic information, which computers can store and analyse, cost-effective high speed, high capacity genomic sequencing technologies, and efforts such as the 100,000 Genomes Project. A UK Government sponsored initiative completed in December 2018, which collected, stored and analysed data from the genomes and medical records of 85,000 NHS England patients affected by cancer or rare disease. Genomics England, which is wholly owned by the UK’s Department of Health, was set up in 2003 to deliver the project. Because CanRisk solely is based on UK population data, its findings are likely to be more applicable to similarly developed Western populations, and less so to populations in other regions of the world. This provides a potential opportunity for international organizations interested in early breast cancer diagnosis. 
 
International sequencing projects
 
The UK’s genomes project is part of a much larger rapidly growing and dynamic global genomics market comprised of data and gene sequencing technologies. 100,000 genomes have been the goal of several other nations interested in improving their healthcare - and lowering costs  - by carrying out precision medicine based on insights from sequencing data. Currently the global genomics market is estimated to be about US$19bn and projected to reach US$41bn by 2025. The market is driven by increasing government funding, the consequent rise  in the number of genomics projects, decreasing gene sequencing costs, growing application areas of genomics and the entry and fast growth of commercial players.

China has become the world’s leader in genomic sequencing. In 2010, the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) in Shenzhen was understood to be hosting a higher sequencing capacity than that of the entire US. While most government projects aim to sequence 100,000 genomes, China’s sequencing program is set to sequence 1m human genomes, which include subgroups of 50,000 people, each with specific conditions such as cancer or metabolic disease. The data will also include cohorts from different regions of China, which will facilitate “the analysis of different genetic backgrounds of subpopulations”.
 
Revolution in genome sequencing
 
The first human genome project began in 1990, took 13 years and about US$1bn to complete. The last two decades have seen a revolution in genome sequencing with dramatic increases in its speed and efficiency coupled with massive reductions in cost. Genomic sequencing has proved its usefulness as a diagnostic and prognostic tool. Today it is possible to get your genome sequenced for around US$1,000 in a few days and delivered by  post from firms such as Dante Labs and 24 Genetics in Europe, and Veritas Genetics and Sure Genomics in the US.
 
Breast cancer
 
Returning to breast cancer. It is important to note that the disease is not one, but  a group of conditions that manifest themselves with maladies in the same organ. Breasts are comprised of three main parts: lobules, which produce milk; ducts, which carry milk to the nipples; and fibrous and fatty connective tissue, which hold everything together. The type of breast cancer depends on which cells in the breast mutate, but most breast cancers begin in the ducts or lobules. Some mutated cells in the breast may never spread, however, most breast cancers tend to be invasive and may present with a number of different characteristics in terms of hardness and shape, which can provide some indication of their likely progression. Breast cancer can spread outside the breast through blood and lymph vessels. Further, there are significant differences in breast cancer at the genetic level. A study published in the April 2012 edition of Nature compared the genetic makeup of breast cancer tumour samples with their other characteristics for some 2,000 women, for whom information about the tumour characteristics had been meticulously recorded; and identified at least 10 distinct sub-types of breast cancer, each with its own unique characteristics. Although the study contributed to how breast cancer is diagnosed, classified and treated, in practice certain characteristics of these tumours were already known and tested for: most notably cellular receptors for estrogen, and progesterone, which are the two most significant steroid hormones responsible for various female characteristics. Their presence or absence generally suggests the potential utility of additional medication to accompany surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
 
Despite population screening and advanced therapies breast cancer remains a killer disease
 
Let us briefly consider breast cancer in the world’s most advanced and wealthiest nation: the US. Although there have been significant improvements in the detection and treatment of breast cancer in the US; still about 1 in 8 American women will develop an invasive type of the disease over the course of her lifetime. In 2019, an estimated 268,600 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in the US, along with 62,930 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer. Breast cancer death rates for women in the US are higher than those for any other cancer, besides lung cancer. As of January 2019, there were more than 3.1m women with a history of breast cancer in the US. Although breast cancer death rates in the US have been decreasing over the past three decades and women under 50 have experienced larger decreases, still some 41,760 are expected to die in 2019 from the disease. About 2,670 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in men in the US in 2019 where a man’s lifetime risk of breast cancer is about 1 in 883.
 
Breast cancer challenges in Singapore
 
There are also breast cancer challenges in wealthy non-Western developed economies such as Singapore. Over the past four decades, the incidence of breast cancer in Singapore has more than doubled: from 25 to 65 per 100,000 women. Breast cancer is not just the most common cancer for Singaporean women, accounting for one in three cancers in women, but it is also the top killer. Data reported in the country’s Cancer Registry showed that 2,105 women died of the disease between 2011 and 2015. Notwithstanding, Singapore has extensive awareness-raising programs; population-wide mammography screening; excellent, multi-disciplinary primary and long-term care and improving palliative care, which have contributed to a significant increase in the survival rates of breast cancer patients. However, a substantial proportion of Singaporean women still appear to have a patchy knowledge of aspects of the disease, which leads to comparatively low participation rates in the nation’s breast cancer screening services, and this contributes to late presentation of the disease when it is more difficult to cure and more challenging to treat.

You might also be interested in:

Breast cancer and harmful BRCA gene mutations


AstraZeneca’s strategy to target early cancer
Breast cancer growing rapidly in Asia
 
Breast cancer was once largely confined to developed Western countries and Australasia, but it has now become the most common cancer in Asia. Although Asian data on breast cancer are patchy, an Economist Intelligence Unit report, suggests that, “since the 1990s, increases in the incidence of breast cancer in Asia, as measured by age-standardised rates (ASRs), is four to eight times that of the global average”. Indeed, as younger cohorts of Asian women age and adopt Western diets and lifestyles (particularly fertility patterns, such as later first childbirth and shorter breast feeding), breast cancer incidence rates in Asia look set to converge with the much higher ones in the West. Further, in LMIC breast cancer is increasing at a more rapid rate than in the West and has become a significant healthcare challenge: 50% of breast cancer cases and 58% of deaths from the disease occur in LMIC.
 The significance of early detection
 
The good news is that if caught in its early stages, breast cancer can be treated effectively, with high survival rates. The average 5-year survival rate for women with invasive breast cancer is 90%. The average 10-year survival rate is 83%. If the cancer is located only in the breast, the 5-year survival rate of women with breast cancer is 99%. In all types of the disease early detection is the cornerstone of breast cancer control.
 
 Gold standard breast cancer mammography screening
 
The current gold standard for preventing and controlling breast cancer is population-based mammography screening. This is a non-invasive process that uses an x-ray of the breast to look for disease in women who do not have symptoms. The method has reasonable sensitivity (72%–87%) that increases with age and allows for the early detection of breast cancer, which helps increase survival, especially in women between 50 and 70. Notwithstanding, mammograms are not pleasant as the breast is squashed between two metal plates and further some women may find mammograms embarrassing.
 
Success of population-based mammography screening
 
Following a landmark Swedish study that began in 1977 mammography screening has been adopted in more than 26 developed countries worldwide. Findings of the study, reported in a 1989 edition of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, suggested that mortality from breast cancer dropped 31% after screening of women aged 39 to 74. More recent findings of the UK screening program published in the June 2013 edition of the British Journal of Cancer, suggested mortality rates from breast cancer were reduced by 20% in the screened group compared to the unscreened group across all age groups. A study published in 2018 in Cancer, which tracked 52,438 Swedish women aged 40-69 from 1977 to 2015, suggested that regular mammograms contributed to a 60% decrease in breast cancer death during the first 10-years of diagnosis, and a 47% reduced risk within 20-years. Research has shown that mammography has relatively little benefit for women under 50.
 
Diverging views about mammography screening
 
Despite evidence to support the benefits of population-based mammography screening, there are diverging views among healthcare professionals about the impact of several decades of high levels of screening. Some argue that traditional mammography screening stretches finite resources and is not cost-effective because the majority of people who undergo screening do not have cancer and may never go on to develop it. Others suggest that there are significant uncertainties about the magnitude of the harms from mammography screening especially associated with false positives (a test result, which wrongly indicates that breast cancer is present).

Challenges of mammography screening
 
The sensitivity of mammography is between 72% and 87%, but is higher in women over 50 and in women with fatty rather than dense breasts. Dense breast tissue can make it harder to evaluate results of a mammogram. According to the Marmot review, for every death from breast cancer that is prevented by screening, it is estimated there will be three over-diagnosed or false-positive cases that are detected and treated unnecessarily. The chance of having a false positive result after one mammogram ranges from 7% to 12%, depending on age (younger women are more likely to have false positive results). After 10 yearly mammograms, the chance of having a false positive is about 50-60%. The more mammograms a woman has, the more likely it is she will have a false positive result. This makes it difficult for doctors to weigh and communicate the benefits and risks of mammography screening programs and fuels interest in innovations such as CanRisk.
 
Takeaways
 
Mammography screening for breast cancer is not 100% accurate. Further, knowhow, trained healthcare professionals and significant resources are required to effectively implement and manage a well-organized and sustainable breast cancer screening program that targets the right population group and ensures effective coordination and quality of actions across the whole continuum of care. These attributes tend to exist only in developed wealthy countries. CanRisk, and other innovative breast cancer early diagnostic devices under development, offer the potential for cheap, rapid, reliable and exquisitely accurate diagnosis that can be easily used in primary care settings throughout the world. In time, as authority in medicine passes to algorithms, expect these new and innovative devices to replace mammography screening in wealthy countries and quickly become devices of choice in developing economies and significantly dent the vast and rapidly growing global burden of breast cancer.
view in full page
joined 3 years, 9 months ago

Kapoor’s Kidney & Urostone Centre Pvt. Ltd.

Best Urologist Doctor in Chandigarh
Directory:
Cancer
Expertise:
doctor
kidney disease
urology

Kapoor’s Kidney & Urostone Centre (KUC)–a premier Superspeciality Urology Hospital in Chandigarh. It is best kapoor nursing home Hospital which treats the many disease treatment in Chandigarh. Contact us now: 9915286238


view this profile
load more Loading..