Protein Could Predict Breast Cancer Survival

A new study points toward a medical sign that could give doctors a very accurate way to tell if early breast cancer will spread.

The research focuses on a growth protein called cyclin E. Its levels rise when cells divide -- and cancer is a disease of out-of-control cell division.

Researchers from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston looked at nearly 400 women with early-stage cancer that showed no sign of spreading. Cyclin E was right every time in telling who would be alive and who would be dead six years later. Researchers also looked at women whose cancer had spread to the lymph nodes. Cyclin E was more than 90 percent accurate in those women.

Currently, the prognosis for women diagnosed with breast cancer is determined by whether tumor cells have spread to lymph nodes, according to the article. But some women who have cancer cells in the lymph nodes never have a recurrence, while others whose cancer has not spread do have a recurrence. Yet many women, after discussions with their doctors, opt to undergo grueling chemotherapy in hopes of ensuring any rogue cancer cells that may be present are killed.

But if cyclin E is proved to be an accurate predictor, it may spare many women the chemotherapy treatment, lead researcher Khandan Keyomarsi said.

Doctors might use cyclin E to tell which women need surgery plus chemotherapy, and which ones just need the tumor cut out. But Keyomarsi said cyclin E needs more research and development first.

The study is published in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.