New research out of the University of Winnipeg could help determine whether or not someone is a good candidate for a breast cancer treatment.
“If you’re able to create a medicine that slows the growth of cancer, that’s huge,” said graduate student Dean Reddick.
The research is looking at a drug called tamoxifen, which is used as treatment in the majority of breast cancer cases. According to researchers the drug is only effective in about half of patients, but that there’s a certain protein signature in the body that might be able to predict whether or not tamoxifen will work for a specific person.
“These molecular signatures have already been tested in tumors from actual patients, so we have tested in almost 400 patients so we know this particular signature relates to aggressiveness or responsiveness to the treatment or not,” said the principal investigator Dr. Anuraag Shrivastav.
Reddick noted that the research isn’t far along but looks promising. He said once they find out if the protein indicates success with tamoxifen, it could be just a few years until all it will take is a biopsy to determine someone’s chance with the treatment.
