In a month in which the visibility of breast cancer has been prominent, we want to highlight the value of oncology research, as well as discuss the current state of knowledge about the disease and the challenges it presents.
Breast cancer affects 1 in 8 women throughout their lives, but today cure rates of 90% are already being achieved. This percentage has been reached thanks to the scientific discoveries obtained from researching the three main types of existing breast cancer and the appropriate treatments for each of them.
Scientific Discoveries About Breast Cancer
Thanks to research, it has been discovered that luminal tumors, the type of cancer that represents 75% of breast cancers, can be treated with chemotherapy and other hormonal treatments and innovative drugs. It has been discovered that it is possible to make chemotherapy reach tumor cells selectively and be less toxic to the organism of patients with HER-2 positive, the type of cancer that represents 15% of breast cancers. And it has been learned that immunotherapy is the great hope for patients with triple negative breast cancer, the type of cancer that represents 10% of breast cancers.
These types of findings are possible thanks to the work of great professionals such as Dr. Cristina Saura, head of the Breast Cancer Research Group at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), and Dr. Miriam Sansó, researcher in the Genomics in Precision Oncology group at IdISBa (Palma de Mallorca).
Their research project, thanks to the FERO II Grant FERO-ghd Project in breast cancer, studies breast cancer during pregnancy at VHIO, and their research team is successfully developing an early diagnostic tool that helps detect the tumor in early stages. Thanks to this advance, tumor detection in milk can be so early that it precedes diagnosis by other methods, such as mammography, by up to 18 months.
What About Breast Cancer in Men?
Every year 700 men are diagnosed with breast cancer in Spain, but you most likely did not know this fact due to the lack of awareness that exists in the social and institutional spheres and in the medical and scientific community about breast cancer in men. A deficiency that can begin to be reduced by talking about it, as does Marius Soler, a metastatic breast cancer survivor and president of the Male Breast Cancer Association INVI, who fights to make this disease visible in men.
Challenges in Breast Cancer Research
Dr. Carlos L. Arteaga, breast cancer researcher in Dallas, Texas, and director of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, speaks about the importance of prevention research and the early implementation of therapies that show good results in advanced disease but, due to the timing of implementation, do not achieve a cure.
Investing in prevention research would ensure that we facilitate the cure of certain breast cancer subtypes, such as HER-2 positive disease. In addition, it would help combat cancers such as neuroblastoma of the brain, pancreatic cancer, or liver cancer more efficiently—cancers that are now more difficult to combat because when they are detected they are already very advanced.
Another relevant and necessary challenge that Dr. Arteaga mentions is the importance of fighting against discrimination based on social and economic status regarding the use of certain treatments to combat breast cancer. It is essential to extend appropriate treatments to the entire population.
Finally, despite the fact that breast cancer is the type of cancer with the most advances in the last year, thanks to the knowledge obtained from research at the molecular and cellular level, the institutionalization of early detection through mammography, and clinical trials, it is necessary to continue researching and raising awareness. As Dr. César Serrano states, it is necessary to have a government that supports oncology research more and a strong and united society that invests resources in favor of science and promotes advances.
“Investment in research is essential for cancer control and the end of cancer to become a reality, and for this we need all of you. Research can change the world and turn what seemed impossible into possible. We must invest more so that one day we can say ‘we have defeated cancer’ and so that advances are faster and we can live longer and better. Investing in research is investing in life, life that translates into good moments shared with our loved ones. Because it can affect us all and because in many cases we are racing against time. Collaborate yes, and moreover with FERO, to be able to transform this research time into life. For me, the FERO Foundation are like true alchemists of life. Let us make Dr. Baselga’s dream a reality, that research brings us closer to the end of cancer.”
For all of this we need all of you. The FERO Foundation raises funds from people like you to generate projects that end up being pioneering in the world. Collaborate with FERO, “the true alchemists of life.”
This text has been prepared with the different messages that doctors, researchers, cancer patients, and their families shared especially for World Breast Cancer Awareness Day on October 19, 2022. The complete video can be viewed here.
