Exposure to X-Rays raises risk of breast cancer in young women with BRCA faults

bjb42 — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 23:30:29 +0000

探花直播international study, part-funded by Cancer Research UK,聽 looked at almost 2,000 women with BRCA faults in the Netherlands, France and the UK between 2006 and 2009 to see if variations in their DNA increased the risk of breast cancer after exposure to low doses of radiation.

It found that women under 30 with BRCA faults who were exposed to chest X-rays and other radiation procedures were 43 per cent more likely to develop breast cancer, compared with women with the same faults who were not exposed. But, this increased risk did not apply to procedures carried out in women over 30.

Around two per cent of breast cancers are caused by BRCA faults, and women with these faults have a 45 to 65 per cent chance of developing the disease.

In the UK, women with BRCA faults are only screened for breast cancer after they are 30, and with a procedure called MRI that does not expose them to radiation.

Study author, Professor Douglas Easton, a Cancer Research UK scientist at the 探花直播 of Cambridge, said: 鈥淏RCA genes help repair DNA damage 鈥� damage which can be caused by exposure to radiation like X-rays. Women with faults in these genes are less able to repair damage caused by radiation, so they are at a greater risk of developing breast cancer. It鈥檚 important that these women and their doctors are aware of this.鈥�

探花直播study was led by the 探花直播 of Cambridge in the UK, in association with 探花直播Institute of Cancer Research and 探花直播Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, St Mary鈥檚 Hospital and Addenbrookes Hospital.

Dr Julie Sharp, senior science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: 鈥淭his research highlights that young women with a faulty BRCA gene are potentially more sensitive to low doses of radiation and doctors need to be aware of these risks when considering procedures using X-rays. In the UK younger women are already screened using MRI scans rather than mammograms to avoid these risks 鈥� but this isn鈥檛 the case in all countries yet.鈥�

Women with faults in BRCA genes are more likely to develop breast cancer if they are exposed to chest X-rays before they are 30, according to a study published in the BMJ online today.

BRCA genes help repair DNA damage 鈥� damage which can be caused by exposure to radiation like X-rays. Women with faults in these genes are less able to repair damage caused by radiation.

Douglas Easton

Euthman from Flickr.

Metastatic breast cancer in pleural field.

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Project to improve radiotherapy planning

amb206 — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:54:10 +0000

Radiation therapy (radiotherapy) is an essential part of cancer treatment and is used in the treatment of 40 per cent of all patients who are cured of their disease. All radiotherapy treatments work by the application of ionising radiation to malignant cells in tumours. 探花直播free radicals released by this process damage the DNA of the exposed tissue, killing off the cancerous cells. By targeting the radiation to the tumour, the damage to surrounding healthy tissue is minimised.

Modern radiotherapy machines can now deliver highly targeted radiotherapy treatment. However, the use of high precision radiotherapy techniques is extremely demanding in terms of hours spent, from the physician who defines the tumour target and healthy tissues, to the physicist who has to calculate a plan of optimum beam angles and trajectories for the treatment, and the radiographer, who must ensure that the treatment is delivered accurately to the target every day during a six or seven week course of radiotherapy.

Accel-RT is an innovative partnership between oncologists, physicists and computer scientists at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. Over the next three years the collaborators will develop software tools and processes that will speed up the process of planning of radiotherapy. Once completed, free software tools will be available to radiotherapy treatment centres. These tools will increase patient access to high precision radiotherapy by reducing the bottle-necks in the clinical workflow. 探花直播system will operate as a 'virtual oncologist', observing what the oncologist is treating and using novel search algorithms to recall similar cases from a clinical archive. Models of tissue structures will be used to help outline normal tissue automatically, as well as to track the movement of these structures during the course of radiotherapy treatment.

Accel-RT is being funded by the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC), through its Innovations Partnership Scheme, and will benefit from the support of Siemens Healthcare, a leading supplier of imaging technology and radiotherapy treatment devices throughout the world.

探花直播key players in the project are established leaders in their fields. At the 探花直播 of Cambridge, Dr Neil Burnet has been an 'early adopter' of novel radiotherapy technologies at Addenbrooke's, from the commissioning of the first in-house 3D computerised treatment planning system, through to the evaluation of the TomoTherapy image guided intensity modulated radiotherapy system conducted for the Department of Health. At Oxford 探花直播, Professor Jim Davies and his team from the Department of Computer Science have experience in the handling of 'smart' data systems - using metadata elements to allow data to be searched and processed in more intuitive ways.

Professor Andy Parker and his team at the High Energy Physics group in Cambridge have extensive experience in the storage and handling of large quantities of image data, and the use of grid computing techniques to accelerate this process. "In essence, Accel-RT is helping to identify tumours and surrounding organs during the planning and delivery of radiotherapy treatment. Tracking the change in position and volume of these structures is a complex problem. To perform these calculations in real time for a single patient would require up to 16 Teraflops of processing power 鈥� approximately 100 times the power of a standard PC workstation,鈥� said Professor Parker, who is Professor of High Energy Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory and Principal Investigator for Accel-RT.

For more details about the project, and to register for project news emails, go to www.accelrt.org.

聽

A collaborative project between physicists, oncologists and computer scientists at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, launched last month, will develop improved tools for the planning of high precision radiotherapy. Accel-RT will also help overcome time constraints that currently limit the use of complex radiotherapy treatment.

探花直播system will operate as a 'virtual oncologist', observing what the oncologist is treating and using novel search algorithms to recall similar cases from a clinical archive.

Andy Parker

Neil Burnet

Image-guided intensity modulated RT plan for a patient with a spinal tumour. 探花直播radiation dose is shaped away from the kidneys (yellow outlines) and the spinal nerve roots (inside the green outline). 探花直播colour wash represents radiation dose

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探花直播 of Cambridge - radiation

Exposure to X-Rays raises risk of breast cancer in young women with BRCA faults

Project to improve radiotherapy planning