Significant discoveries have been made in the treatment and outcomes of patients with breast cancer at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.  Every year, nearly 62,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK and one in every eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. Following their diagnosis, patients with breast cancer undergo treatments that combine chemotherapy, targeted therapy and surgery. But breast cancers are not identical, and each patient’s response to treatment will depend on the characteristics of their tumour. 

Only 40% of breast cancer patients will benefit from chemotherapy.

As chemotherapy is a particularly aggressive treatment, which can cause potentially severe side effects, it is so important to the team at the Nottingham Breast Institute to identify patients who will not benefit from chemotherapy, so they can be spared from the side effects that could compromise their quality of life.

 Currently, there is no predictive test widely-available to doctors and their patients which can help inform their chemotherapy treatment decision.

For the last 10 years Professor Stephen Chan and his research team have been working to solve this problem. In June 2016 they published their discovery – a new cancer characteristic which can help predict the chemotherapy sensitivity of breast cancer.

 By testing the activity of a protein called ‘Sperm associated AntiGen 5’ (SPAG5) in tumour tissue, they can determine whether chemotherapy treatment will benefit individual patients. The team discovered that if a patient’s tumour shows a high level of activity, they will respond well to chemotherapy, whilst those whose tumours are less active are less likely to experience a positive outcome from treatment.

 Imagine the difference it would make to breast cancer patients across the country if all doctors were able to determine the likelihood of success from chemotherapy before treatment is given. Professor Chan and his team are now working to develop a clinical SPAG5 testing kit that will make this a reality. With SPAG5 as one of the four routine tests a patient receives at diagnosis, their doctor will immediately know how to tailor treatment to their specific form of breast cancer. This personalised therapy will result in improved outcomes and a better quality of life for patients.