PNNL Lab: Exciting News In Breast Cancer Research

Singling out the real breast cancer among the lumps

Finding several proteins in blood at same time improves accuracy of cancer detection

Mary Beckman
October 24, 2011

“Early detection of breast cancer saves thousands of lives each year. But screening for breast cancer also produces false alarms, which can cause undue stress and costly medical bills. Now, a recent study using patient blood reveals a possible way to reduce the number of false alarms that arise during early screening. Researchers found a panel of proteins shed by breast cancer that are easily detected and can distinguish between real cancer and benign lumps.

This study used diagnostic tools that are already in use in clinics. If the results can be replicated with more volunteers and over a longer period of time, the transition from research lab to clinical lab would be straightforward.

Tests similar to this identify unique proteins in blood from women with breast cancer. In each of the four 25-dot squares, each dot represents one of 21 different proteins being measured in one blood sample. The color indicates how much of the protein is present.

‘We were surprised to see we could distinguish between accurate and false results produced by cancer screens such as mammograms,’ said Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory biologist Richard Zangar, who led the study published in the July issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. ‘We really want to expand the work to verify our findings.’ “

See the full article here.