Imagine simple test that, with a few drops of urine, could detect breast cancer. Could it be possible? Yes, at Harvard, it is being developed. Read on to learn more:
Researchers and scientists from Harvard’s Children's Hospital in Boston are working to develop a simple breast cancer "dipstick test" to detect breast cancer at very early stages. Marsha Moses, director of the Vascular Biology Program at Children's Hospital, has been working on the exciting research area of bio-markers that use biological compounds that could signal or warn patients about the potential risk of developing cancer breast cancer.
Background
Back in the '60s, cancer biomarker pioneer Dr. Judah Folkman found that autopsies of people who died without ever developing any cancer symptoms had microscopic prostate tumors in over 40 % of men, had small thyroid tumors (aged 50 to 70) and had (35% of women) micro breast cancer tumors . But, the rate of clinical diagnose of these cancer types and many others were extremely low (less than 1%).
These findings and many others led scientist to find that before a tumor grows and develop (an thus is detected) a process, called angiogenesis, should occur. Angiogenesis leads to the formation of biomarkers (proteins) that are released into the urine.
Encouraging Results
Women whose urine that had any of two types of breast cancer were found to have unusually high levels of certain angiogenesis biomarkers, known as MMP-9 and ADAM-12 when compared with healthy women. With these biomarkes for angiogenesis in breast cancer patients Moses believes that someday cancer could be treated as a chronic illness, like diabetes or cardiovascular disease. You do not even need to know where the tumor is. It is like prescribing Statins, a cholesterol-lowering drug, without knowing which blood vessels have plaque buildup. Urine biomarkers could be used to determine the aggressiveness of the cancer process and choose the right therapy.
More specifically, Moses and colleagues analyzed urine samples of 68 women with breast cancer marker lesions and 80 of healthy women. They found that 75% of women carrying breast cancer lesions had high levels of ADAM-12, compared with 4% of the control group. The MMP-9 was also present at high levels in the breast cancer group.
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Breast Cancer Dipstick Test?
The MMP-9 and ADAM-12 biomarkers data has been licensed to a biotech company that will work on a simple breast cancer dipstick in which a few drops could be rapidly used to asses the risk of a woman to develop breast cancer. In this way certain drugs, that inhibits angiogenesis, could be administered without even knowing where the tumor is. The breast cancer dipstick test is not available commercially yet but we will probably see it soon in the market.
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