A new study, presented at the Sixth International Consensus Conference on Advanced Breast Cancer and considered the first of this kind, set out to investigate the extent of advanced breast cancer, as well as who is at higher risk of developing it, and shed light on what treatments are needed.
In this context, they studied the global risks of an early-detected breast cancer spreading to other parts of the body, known as metastasis. The chances of this happening range from 6 and 22%.
However, it was found that this percentage it increases in certain groups of women: in the case of the youngest (diagnosed before age 35) the risk of breast cancer returning and spreading to other parts of the body is between 12.7% and 38%.
Those women in whom larger tumors were found at the initial diagnosis and those with specific types of breast cancer, for example, the so-called luminal B, also have more chances of metastasis than average: 4.2% to 35.5% compared to 2.3% to 11.8% risk in women diagnosed with luminal A cancer.
About 2.3 million people are diagnosed with breast cancer every year around the world, but this is the first study of its kind to investigate how many of these patients develop advanced breast cancer.
An important study
“Breast cancer is the most common way cancer in the world. Most women are diagnosed when cancer is confined to the breast or only spreads to nearby tissues, “says Eileen Morgan of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
IARC is an intergovernmental body that is part of the United Nations World Health Organization.
“But,” he continues, “in some women, the cancer will grow and spread to other parts of the body or return to a different part of the body several years after the end of their initial treatment. At this point, the cancer becomes much more difficult to treat and the risk of death is higher”He assures.
The chances of developing metastases range between 6 and 22% for women with breast cancer. Photo Shutterstock.
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She adds: “However, we don’t really know how many people develop metastatic breast cancer because cancer registries they have not compiled these data routinely. “
It is in this context that this analysis, whose findings are part of a meta-analysis of the available literature, takes on special relevance.
The researchers gathered data from as many different studies as they could find about breast cancer and whether it spreads to other parts of the body. By combining a large amount of data, they were able to access the more reliable information about the overall risk of metastasis and how it varies for different groups of patients.
Thus, the analysis included tens of thousands of women who participated in more than 400 studies from North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
The researchers began by studying the age of women when they were diagnosed with breast cancer and the different types and stages of breast cancer. They also looked at whether metastasis rates had changed over time.
As indicated, the overall risk of metastasis for most breast cancer patients is between 6% and 22%. This is a range that reflects the level of risk for half the women in the analysis, with only a quarter of women at higher risk and a quarter of women at lower risk.
Around 2.3 million women are diagnosed each year in the world with this type of cancer. Photo Shutterstock.
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The range is wide because the risk varies a lot according to the different risk factors, as they clarify.
Along these lines, regarding why young women saw their risk of metastasis increased, Dr. Morgan states: “This may be due to this age group having a more aggressive way of breast cancer, or because young women are being diagnosed at a later stage. “
On the other hand, the study also suggests that late recurrence rates – meaning that breast cancer comes back after the initial diagnosis and spreads to other organs – it has decreased over time from women first diagnosed in the 1970s and 1980s to more recent times.
But they also clarify that part of this may be due to the time that elapses between the first diagnosis of breast cancer and the appearance of metastasis.
The scope of the analysis
The data you collect will be useful to try quantify a women living with advanced breast cancer around the world, look for other factors that may alter risk and monitor how that risk changes over time.
In this regard, Dr. Shani Paluch-Shimon, member of the Scientific Committee of ABC 6, Director of the Breast Unit of the Hadassah University Hospital, Israel, who did not participate in the research, said: “There has been a knowledge gap about how many people living with advanced breast cancer all over the world. This studio it’s a step to fill that void ”.
And he adds: “The researchers have already been able to give the first reliable estimate of how many patients with breast cancer go on to develop advanced disease in contemporary cohorts and identify some of the groups, such as younger women, who face a higher risk ”, he assures.
And he highlights the importance that this information acquires both for patients who want to understand their prognosis and at the public health level: “It is vital for those of us who work to treat and prevent cancer of advanced breast, we can understand the scale of the disease around the world ”, she enthuses.
In this sense, he adds: “It will help us to identify groups at risk in different populations and demonstrate how the course of the disease is changing with contemporary treatments ”.
“It will also – he adds – will help us understand what resources are needed and where, to ensure that we can collect and analyze quality data in real time, as this is key for the allocation of resources and the planning of future studies”, he concludes.
