The project will start in the spring of 2022 and will last until the end of 2024. Part of the funds for the project comes from the Pink Ribbon campaign, the Norwegian Cancer Society informs. The title of the project is ‘Spatial heterogeneity and breast cancer lineages in Ductal Carcinoma In Situ’.
Therese Sørlie and her colleagues will investigate the pre-invasive stages of breast cancer. That is, early stages of cancer progression where the milk ducts are filled with cancer cells, but have not yet spread into surrounding breast tissue.
Such precursors, called Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS), are often detected by mammography screening. More and more women receive this diagnosis.
Therese Sørlie is Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Clinical Medicine.
The research can have a major impact on treatment
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women and the incidence is increasing. The disease puts a great strain on many people's lives as well as on society.
– It is therefore important to get a better understanding of how breast cancer develops, from the earliest stages and to the different types of tumours that we identify when we diagnose, she says.
The researchers in the project aim to understand the mechanisms and biological processes that form the basis for early development of breast cancer. They will also investigate the extent to which the microenvironment around the milk ducts contributes to influencing the invasion process, i.e. when the cancer cells spread into the breast tissue, and what type of breast cancer develops.
– The results from the research can have great significance for how we treat patients, and when to start treatment, Sørlie says, and adds:
– In addition, we will gain better knowledge about cancer development on a molecular level. This can also help us to better understand other forms of cancer.
The funds open up for new research possibilities
– The funds from the Cancer Society mean a lot to us. We have been researching DCIS and development of breast cancer for several years already. We have exciting results that we now have the opportunity to move forward with, Sørlie says, and continues:
– We will use entirely new methods and study biological material from patients who had a long follow-up period. This allows us to look more holistically at the development of breast cancer.
Head of the Division of Cancer Medicine, Adjunct Professor Sigbjørn Smeland, comments on the award:
– Through various model systems, Sørlie's project will increase the understanding of DCIS as well as which DCIS will develop into cancer and which ones will not. With increased knowledge, the goal is that patients with the more benign variant of DCIS will not need to receive unnecessary treatment that always involves a certain risk of acute side effects and late injuries. He adds:
– The project is based on previous work in the research group, and we are very happy that it receives support from the Norwegian Cancer Society.
Great need for more precise treatment of breast cancer
Therese Sørlie says that breast cancer treatment has become much better in the last 20 years. Today, more than 90 per cent of those affected are alive five years after the diagnosis.
– Nevertheless, there is a great need for more precise treatment. Not least, it is important that we can avoid treatment that is associated with many side effects in patients who have a good prognosis, Sørlie states.
Currently, the common treatment of people with DCIS, i.e. precursors to breast cancer, is surgery and radiation therapy.
– But we lack precise risk markers for this patient group, she points out, and continues:
– We hope that the results from our research can help to determine early on which precursors to breast cancer we need to treat, and which ones have a low risk of developing into cancer over the course of the patients' lifetime.
The latter group might not need treatment will not need to cope with adverse side effects either.