Researchers of the University Hospital, Basel and the Hamburg-Eppendorf University Hospital have discovered an important cause of the onset of breast cancer. The already patented findings indicate reliable breast cancer diagnosis and better treatment of a specific type of this ailment in future. The research results were published in the on-line edition of the renowned international journal, Nature Genetics.
It has been long known that the abnormal increase of the copy number of genes, the so-called gene amplification, plays a role in the onset of breast cancer. By the examination of tissue samples of over 2000 breast cancer patients, researchers have now found that amplification of the ESR1 gene was present in over 20 percent of the cases. ESR1 amplification seems to be one of the earliest genetic alterations in breast cancer and since same can be identified even in still benign changes of breast tissue, it can therefore also be detected during the preliminary stages of breast cancer. Detection is possible by means of a combination of various biochip technologies and special software, which was developed by Dr Christian Ruiz at the Institute for Pathology of the Basel University Hospital....
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