Breast Cancer Diagnostic Technique Created

U.S. researchers have used positron emission tomography to view hyperactive cancer genes inside breast tumors in laboratory animals.

The procedures at the Jefferson Medical College and Kimmel Cancer Center in Philadelphia mark the first time such gene activity has been observed from outside the body.

The scientists said the technology they developed might someday aid physicians in the early detection and classification of cancerous breast tumors.

The research led by Eric Wickstrom and Mathew Thakur involved a DNA probe — a modified nuclear medicine agent — to detect the hyperactivity of the gene CCND1 that’s copied thousands of times in most breast cancer cells. The researchers found a much higher concentration of the cancer gene activity in estrogen receptor-positive breast tumors in mice than in normal tissue.

Less than one-fourth of lumps found in mammograms are really cancer, said Wickstrom, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. Our new technique will let us see what is really going on in a suspicious lump.

The new technique is reported in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.