Researchers are testing a new type of targeted radiation therapy to treat secondary breast cancer tumors in the brain, thanks to new funding from Breast Cancer Now.
Image credit: Breast Cancer Now
Secondary (or metastatic) breast cancer is when breast cancer has spread to other parts of the body. Although incurable, the disease can be treated, but treatments are limited once the cancer has spread to the brain.
The most common treatment is whole-brain radiation therapy, which can cause serious side effects such as hair loss, nausea, vomiting, and fatigue because healthy brain tissue receives the same dose of radiation as the cancer.
Breast Cancer Now has awarded £173,414 to Dr Matt Williams and his team at Imperial College London, who will investigate whether a type of targeted radiotherapy, called DE-iPTV VMAT, could be a more effective treatment for patients with secondary cancer of breast.
This type of radiation therapy targets secondary breast cancer tumors in the brain while minimizing damage to healthy tissue, which should cause fewer side effects for patients than whole-brain radiation therapy.
Everyone in the clinical trial will receive this new type of radiation therapy so researchers can assess its impact and how it affects patients’ quality of life.
The team will also collect and analyze blood samples to see if it is possible to tell who might benefit most from this treatment.
In addition, Dr. Williams will use national cancer data to develop a more complete picture of people whose breast cancer has spread to the brain by analyzing patient survival rates and use of health care services.
Currently, there is no official record of the number of people living with secondary breast cancer or their experience with the disease. Developing a greater understanding of these patients would help scientists develop more gentle, cost-effective treatments and improve women’s quality of life.
The Imperial team hope that using this data and the results from the original study will help them design a larger clinical trial to test the benefits of targeted radiation therapy more thoroughly.
Dr Matt Williams, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “We have developed a way of delivering radiotherapy which increases the dose to brain tumors while reducing the dose to the rest of the brain.
“This targeted approach should be more effective in treating people with secondary breast cancer in the brain than whole-brain radiation therapy and have fewer side effects. But we need to see if it’s practical and works for patients.”
Over 1,000 people with breast cancer receive radiotherapy for brain tumors each year in the UK. Most of them could benefit from a targeted radiation therapy that reduces radiation to healthy brain tissue, which could improve the quality of life of people affected by the disease. With around 61,000 people living with incurable secondary breast cancer in the UK, we hope our research could lead to more treatment options giving people more time to live their lives to the fullest.​​
Dr Simon Vincent, Director of Research, Advocacy and Impact, Breast Cancer Now
Scott Henniker from Birchington in Kent lost his wife Hayley to secondary breast cancer in 2020. Hayley was diagnosed with HER2 positive breast cancer in 2014 and although she responded well to treatment, she received the devastating news that the cancer of the breast had spread to her brain in 2018.
Scott says: “Hayley had an operation to remove the tumor from her brain and is recovering well. She was always so positive and you wouldn’t know she wasn’t well. However, the cancer returned and for a time it was kept under control with radiotherapy, but Hayley began to decline significantly from March 2020 and sadly passed away in August with our two children and me by her side.’
Scott is passionate about supporting research to find more targeted therapies to treat secondary breast cancer in the brain.
Scott says: “Hayley received local and whole brain radiotherapy and experienced all sorts of challenging side effects. We watched her gradually become a completely different person from the one we knew and loved, which was heartbreaking for our family. I support any research that seeks more targeted and effective treatments for breast cancer that has spread to the brain, so that fewer people lose loved ones to this terrible disease.”
Breast Cancer Now is the research and support charity here for anyone affected by breast cancer. Call the free helpline on 0808 800 6000 to speak to their specialist nurses or find out more and donate at breastcancernow.org
