Breast cancer and treatment

Breast cancer is the most frequent form of cancer in the Scandinavian countries, and in one patient in five, the cancer spreads during the patient’s lifetime, often to the liver.

1. There are several challenges in treating liver metastases from breast cancer:
   The current criteria for which patients are offered surgery do not adequately predict which patients will actually benefit from the intervention.
   
   
2. Surgery imposes significant physiological strain and carries a risk of complications. The risks must therefore be carefully balanced against the anticipated benefits.
   
   

“This project, which is supported by the Vissing Foundation, is to investigate whether there are molecular markers or mechanisms that can predict the clinical course after surgical treatment for liver metastases,” explains Lauge Hjorth Mikkelsen from the Department of Transplantation & Diseases of the Digestive System at the Rigshospital.

The researchers will study patients who have undergone surgery for liver metastases from breast cancer. Tumour tissue and tissue from the surrounding liver are separated into their respective cell populations and subsequently analysed for RNA (ribonucleic acid) and protein in their anatomical context using advanced multi-omics technology, which is a method that combines different types of biological data.

The molecular patterns are then checked against clinical information such as the patients’ survival.

The aim of the project is to improve the criteria determining which patients should be offered surgical treatment for liver metastases. This will spare unnecessary risks to patients who will not benefit from surgery, and at the same time ensure that the intervention is offered to the patients who will in fact benefit from it.

The aim is also to avoid expenditure of health service resources on treatment without documented effect.