Breast cancer gene families given hope by drug trial

A new treatment approach can significantly improve survival rates for patients with aggressive, inherited breast cancer, a study suggests.

The trial, led by Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, and published in Nature Communications, involved women with early-stage breast cancer who have inherited BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations.

Giving them the targeted drug olaparib before surgery greatly reduced the chances of the cancer coming back.

More than 1,200 patients a year in the UK could benefit from the change in practice if a larger clinical trial can confirm the findings.

The Hollywood star Angelina Jolie raised awareness of inherited breast cancer genes in 2013 when she had a double mastectomy to cut her risk of getting the disease.

Prof Abraham said a larger, multinational trial is planned next year, involving some 600 patients. She predicted that if the findings are repeated, it will lead to a major change in clinical practice for more than 1,200 patients a year in the UK.

Currently patients are given olaparib for a year after surgery, whereas on the trial patients took the tablets over 12 weeks pre-surgery, and at half the dose.

Prof Abraham said: "From a cost perspective, it would save the NHS a considerable amount of money because it's a fraction of the time and dose of the drug."

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: "While this research is still in its infancy, it is an exciting discovery that adding olaparib at a carefully-timed stage of treatment can potentially give patients with this specific type of breast cancer more time with their loved ones."

Although the trial involved only women, Prof Abraham said the olaparib results would also apply to the much smaller number of men with the BRCA mutation who get breast cancer.

The trial was funded by Cancer Research UK and AstraZeneca, and was supported by the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre and Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust (ACT).