International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics

A new study has raised concerns about the effects of radiation upon breast cancer development.

It is a widely-established fact that exposure to ionising radiation can led to mutations or genetic damage that contributes to cells turning cancerous.

Researchers at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have found that radiation exposure can change the environment surrounding a cell, meaning that future cells are more likely to become cancerous.

"Our work shows that radiation can change the microenvironment of breast cells, and this in turn can allow the growth of abnormal cells with a long-lived phenotype that has a much greater potential to be cancerous," said Paul Yaswen, a cell biologist and breast cancer research specialist with Berkeley Lab's Life Sciences Division.

A recent study conducted by scientists from MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, US, found that there is a link between metastatic breast cancer and the number of circulating tumour cells that patients have in their blood.

Posted by Martine Ward