Southampton leads national trial to personalise breast cancer treatment
Cancer scientists and clinicians at the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton have been awarded £1.2million to improve breast cancer treatments.
The team will explore how exercise, diet, body fat, and muscle influence the effectiveness of treatments for patients.
This new approach could help make breast cancer treatments more personalised. This could be more effective and kinder for patients.
The programme, known as CANDO, is being funded by the World Cancer Research Fund.
Personalising treatment
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women worldwide. In the UK, one in seven women are diagnosed in their lifetime.
University Hospital Southampton diagnoses approximately 600 new breast cancer cases each year as a large teaching hospital and regional oncology centre.
There have been huge advances in treatment. However, the disease still progresses further in more than 20% of women who develop early-stage breast cancer.
Currently, simple Body Mass Index (BMI) measurements are used to guide treatment doses for patients with breast cancer.
In this study, the researchers will go a step further. They will take a detailed electronic scan of a woman’s body fat and muscle. This will allow them to determine her ‘body composition’. They will combine this with information about diet and exercise.
They will use this data to explore how body composition affects patients’ responses and side effects to treatments.
So far, the team have collected data from 300 patients with early-stage breast cancer who are receiving chemotherapy.
They also plan to see if it could help patients having more targeted treatments. These include genetic-based treatments, immunotherapies and hormonal therapies.
The results will help inform how this approach could be used to more accurately determine the type and level of cancer treatment each patient needs.
Body weight and breast cancer
Higher body weight is a known risk factor for developing post-menopausal breast cancer.
Yet the team say there are still many gaps in our knowledge. This includes how diet, weight, body composition and physical activity affect breast cancer and its treatment.
The CANDO study builds on their previous work with women aged under 40 with breast cancer.
They compared survival in those with higher body fat to those with a healthier body composition. Women with higher body fat had a significantly lower eight-year survival.
Taking a ‘critical step’
Seven other NHS Trusts are expected to join the project.
Professor Ramsey Cutress is a professor of breast surgery at University of Southampton and an honorary surgeon at University Hospital Southampton.
He said: “We are delighted to receive this funding from WCRF which will now enable us to explore in much more detail how body composition, exercise, and nutrition can impact breast cancer patient outcomes.
“We will take this further to better understand how to personalise a wide range of treatments to individual patients including surgery, radiotherapy and drug treatments.”
Professor Ellen Copson, professor of medical oncology and joint lead researcher with Professor Cutress, added:
“This is all a critical step in learning to use modern cancer therapies including chemotherapy, targeted therapies and immunotherapies as effectively and safely as possible. This can help clinicians to weigh up the pros and cons of particular treatments for individual patients and allowing us to provide more personalised information for patients to help them make decisions about their own treatments.
“We hope that our approach could become part of mainstream NHS approach to cancer care within the next ten years.”