Information about breast cancer

Researchers gain more insight into evolution of pre-stage breast cancer

One in five breast cancers are actually precursors to breast cancer. Because we don't know today which precursors progress to breast cancer and which do not, they are all treated. Thanks to Belgian-Dutch research, this is likely to change.

For every 10,000 breast cancer diagnoses in Belgium, about 2,000 people are found to have DCIS: a pile of abnormal cells in the milk ducts of the breast that are more likely to be a preliminary stage of breast cancer. DCIS, in full Ductal Carcinoma In Situ, does not always grow into a true breast cancer. Yet DCIS is always treated as breast cancer because one does not know which precursors continue to evolve and which do not. Thus, there are some women who have to undergo the entire breast cancer treatment when they would never develop a breast cancer. One errs on the side of caution.

Belgian and Dutch researchers have developed a method to better predict the progression of DCIS into invasive breast cancer. Using mice into which cells from individuals with DCIS were inserted, researchers can better identify which DCIS patients are at risk for breast cancer. Half of the mice with DCIS developed breast cancer and half did not. The researchers have discovered what factors play a role in DCIS in the experimental mouse population in whether or not it continues to develop into breast cancer. If they can show that the same factors also play a role in humans, the way lies open to better predicting which precursor stages will grow into a true breast cancer and which will not. In case there is no further malignant evolution, breast cancer treatment is no longer necessary.

Hutten S, de Bruijn R, Lutz C et al. A living biobank of patient-derived ductal carcinoma in situ mouse-tranductal xenografts identifies risk factors for invasive progression. Cancer Cell 2023 (27/4).

Continue reading

Breast Cancer
BRCA
No items found.

Hereditary breast cancer is not a doomsday scenario; there are solutions

Ten percent of all breast cancers are hereditary. That means there are abnormal genes in the hereditary material that greatly increase the risk of breast cancer. The best-known breast cancer genes are BRCA1 and BRCA2 (BRCA stands for BReastCAncer). They are passed down from generation to generation. Men can also inherit these genes and pass them on to their offspring. Moreover, both breast cancer genes are dominant. If one of your parents carries the gene, you have a 50 percent chance of inheriting it.
Breast Cancer
Oligometastatic breast cancer
No items found.

Oligometastatic breast cancer

When breast cancer metastasizes, there are still many treatment options. With only a few distant metastases, you can sometimes survive for 10 years or more, and exceptionally even be cured.
Breast Cancer
Awareness
No items found.

Pink Ribbon : "Far too little attention is paid to the group of patients with the most severe diagnoses" 

Breast cancer is diagnosed more than 11,000 times a year in Belgium, 100 times more often in women than in men. Thanks to the spectacular progress in breast cancer detection and treatment, there is a lot of good news to tell: more than 9 out of 10 women with non-proliferating breast cancer survive at least 5 years after diagnosis. And 8 in 10 breast cancers, moreover, will never metastasize. But that's not the whole story! In Belgium, between 2,300 and 2,500 women die annually from breast cancer, because 2 out of 10 breast cancers do metastasize sooner or later. As a result, breast cancer remains the leading cause of death among women affected by cancer.

Find out how you can support Pink Ribbon .

Thanks to our partners

How can you help?