According to a research, the location of the cancer cells in the breast affects how they behave.
This might help to explain why certain therapies only seem to help select patients.
Cancer is brought on by genetic changes in a cell, and as time passes, the tumour develops into a patchwork of cancer clonal groupings of cells.
These clones have now been analysed by researchers utilising modern equipment, including those from Stockholm University.
According to Mats Nilsson, a researcher at Stockholm University, “now, for the first time, we have been able to map the distribution of such clones in detail by seeing dozens of these mutations in tissue slices from a group of breast cancer tumours.”
Clone behaviour varies The study team discovered that there are distinct, often surprising patterns of clone formation at various phases of breast cancer development and that genetic clones act differently depending on where in the breast they originate.
The cells around the abnormal tumour itself seem to be the main factor in how quickly breast cancer spreads. The findings so imply that occasionally both the location of the tumour and genetic factors might affect how a cancer develops.
The tumours are distributed in various areas of the breast, which may help to explain why certain therapies are ineffective in some people even if they have comparable mutations to others, according to Mats Nilsson.
You can obtain responses to your dissemination questions. The researchers claim that this approach might be used to address some of the major issues surrounding cancer, including why certain cancer cells spread, how treatment resistance develops, and why some therapies are unsuccessful.
The researchers anticipate that in the future, it may be able to alter the environment around the tumour in order to stop it from proliferating and spreading.