Could circulating tumour DNA in the blood help us identify those patients that require post operative chemotherapy?

Research Scientists: Claire Swift & Monee Shamsher Final spend: £177,128. 2016-2018

Project summary 

Many breast cancers are currently treated with surgery followed by chemotherapy. One of the biggest research challenges is to identify those patients who will, or will not, benefit from post-operative chemotherapy. It is possible that some patients would not relapse even without chemotherapy and similarly some might relapse even following chemotherapy.

A pilot study was conducted in the Ralph Lauren Centre for Breast Cancer Research to establish the data necessary to develop the extra-sensitive liquid biopsy tests within Grant 4. The data supported the use of liquid biopsies to become the standard way of detecting relapse and confidently being able to identify patients who do not need chemotherapy.