International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

A simple genetic test that looks at just three genes is the most effective way to classify breast cancer into sub-types, it has been found.

According to US researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, the findings of the test will make it easier to personalise breast cancer treatment.

The study was based on the established theory that breast cancer is not just one biologically homogenous disease but it is made up of several molecular sub-types, which each have a distinct gene profile.

More than 4,600 breast cancer patients were examined and their gene expression datasets were analysed, producing six different classification models.

Dr Benjamin Haibe-Kains, one of the researchers on the study, said: "For the first time, we estimated their robustness: that is, their capacity to assign the same tumours to the same molecular sub-types whatever the gene expression data used to fit this model."

Recently, researchers published details, in Nature Genetics journal, of a newly-identified gene, RAD51C, that has been found to increase the women's susceptibility to hereditary breast and ovarian cancers.

Posted by Paul Robertson