Breast cancer is the number one cancer in women. Just last year 40,000 new cases of the condition were diagnosed, whilst one in eight women will develop the disease by the age of 85.
With these statistics in mind, Professor Andreas Evdokiou and his research team at the Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide spend their time researching new methods for the prevention, detection and treatment of the cancer.
A recent grant awarded by Australian Breast Cancer Research – in collaboration with the Hospital Research Foundation – will help these researchers come closer to stopping the spread of breast cancer to other parts of the body.
Researchers at the Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research (BHI) are attaching weight to the theory that enzymes in the body could be one of the factors contributing to an increase in breast cancer risk and spread. The enzymes they’re looking at are called peroxidases – released by immune cells at sites of inflammation and damage – which fight to eliminate bacteria.
“We have shown that these enzymes actually play a much more sinister role,” says Professor Andreas Evdokiou, son of Greek Cypriot migrants who arrived in Australia as a consequence of the 1974 Cyprus invasion, who is currently head of the Breast Cancer Research Unit at the BHI.
“Cancer develops because the normal mechanisms of how cells grow, divide and die are disturbed,” says Professor Evdokiou.
“Gene mutations that appear to bend those mechanisms cause the cell to lose self control. This has a lot to do with genes, signalling mechanisms and mutations. When those genes go wrong, for some reason or another, because of environmental factors, age stress, etc., there is an increase of risk for those genes to make mistakes, to cause mutations, and we lose those control mechanisms.”
Sadly, once breast cancer spreads, the chances of it being deadly are high. While much work may be undertaken dealing with the primary tumour, when the cancer begins to spread to other organs, that’s when it becomes a real issue. The team is studying organ fibrosis; a build-up of collagens that eventually leads to scar tissue. It wants to evaluate whether fibrosis increases the chances of breast cancer spreading.
According to Professor Evdokiou, in the 1980s only 75 per cent of women diagnosed with the disease were still alive after five years. This statistic has now climbed to an astonishing 90 per cent.
“We have done really well in the context of diagnosing the cancer much earlier and increasing the chances of finding the right treatment,” he explains.
Research proves someone who has a family history of breast cancer has an increased risk of developing the disease at some point in their life. However, if one doesn’t have the gene defect, the chances are lower – whilst environmental factors such as chemicals, radiation, diet, smoking, alcohol and breast density can increase the risk of developing the disease.
“Cancer is like a ticking time bomb. You never know when it will go off,” says the professor. If you freeze a cancer cell, and thaw it out 50 years later, it will be alive and will keep on growing. It doesn’t die. It just keeps on growing.”
The real problem starts when the cancer moves to other vital organs.
“If the tumour is detected early, then there is only a small chance for the cancer to have moved. Then, the specialists can offer better treatment options and drugs to treat it. You can’t use just one single drug to fight cancer. You need multiple drugs. Cancer is very smart. It forms its own blood supply.
“We can keep on hitting with different drugs and kill 90 per cent of the cancer, but it begins to fight back and becomes resistant to a particular drug. You have to hit cancer from all different angles. How do we kill cancer cells without killing the healthy cells? Identify drugs that only target and kill cancer cells.”
Whilst studying all the cancers that originate in the bone or end up in the bone from distant cancers – such as prostate or breast cancer – Professor Evdokiou discovered that 75 per cent of patients end up with skeletal cancer if not treated early.
“We are trying to figure out why bone is such fertile soil to cancer. Women don’t die from breast cancer, the problem starts as soon as the cancer starts moving away from the breast to other parts of the body.”
Professor Evdokiou – who is also vice president of the Greek Cypriot Community of South Australia – was guest speaker at an event hosted Women’s Auxiliary and Entertainment Subcommittee last Sunday to support Breast Cancer Research at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the University of Adelaide.