Breast cancer is one of the most common conditions among women. The importance of screening cannot be stressed enough. Through clinical evaluation, imaging studies, and biopsies as needed, the chances of detecting breast cancer early are greater.In most cases detection of breast cancer requires a biopsy.
A breast biopsy is a procedure in which part or all of a suspicious breast growth is removed and examined for the presence of cancer. The growth sample is suctioned out through a needle or cut out using a surgical procedure. The sample is then examined and evaluated under a microscope by a pathologist to identify non-cancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant) tissue. Words used to refer to the abnormal area or growth before and after diagnosis may include lump, mass, lesion, and tumor. The basic aim of a breast biopsy is to determine whether or not a worrisome lump is cancer and, if it is cancer, what type it is. When no cancer is detected, the diagnosis of a benign or harmless lump is reassuring.But suprisingly approximately 5.6 million biopsies performed in the United States find only benign lesions. These biopsies cause substantial stress for the patients and have a high cost. Current imaging techniques have a possibility of missing breast cancers and are unable to distinguish malignant from benign tumors, thus requiring invasive biopsies.
Mathew Thakur, Ph.D., professor of Radiology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and director of Radiopharmaceutical Research and Nuclear Medicine Research and colleagues are currently involved in developing an imaging agent that targets specific biomarker and helps in the early,reliable detection of malignant breast cancer. Dr. Thakur and colleagues studied an agent called 64Cu-TP3805, which is used to evaluate tumors via PET imaging.
64Cu-TP3805 detects breast cancer by targeting VPAC1,a biomarker overexpressed by tumor cells.Researchers worked on MMTVneu mice which are mice that form breast cancer spontaneously like humans.Images using 64Cu-TP3805 agent were compared to those got from gold standard imaging agent 18F-FDG.The mice were subjected to a PET scan using 18F-FDG agent,followed by a CT scan and thereafter another PET scan with 64Cu-TP3805.Ten tumors were detected in the mice.Four of these were detected by both 64Cu-TP3805 and 18F-FDG.Four tumors were detected by 64Cu-TP3805 alone.All these eight tumors were found to express VPAC1 biomarker and were malignant in nature.Remaining two tumors were detected by 18F-FDG which were benign by nature but were not detected 64Cu-TP3805 as they did not express the biomarker.If this potential of PET scans using 64Cu-TP3805 agents which are able to clearly distinguish between benign and malignant forms of tumor could be applied to humans,it could very well contribute to developing efficient and reliable imaging techniques for breast cancer thus avoiding the need for a breast biopsy.