Dr Sherene Loi talks to ecancer about the heterogeneity of breast cancer tumours at IMPAKT 2012 in Brussels, May 2012.

Technology now allows for the understanding of the cancer genome down to the base pair of certain types of cancer. In small tumour breast cancer, less than 2cm, the tumours have multiple ‘clones’ and these ‘clones’ drive the growth of the tumour. Treatment of one tumour can be the reason for relapses as another tumour can then proliferate.

Dr Loi also discusses PI3 kinase, which is essential for cell growth but highly irregular in breast cancer and especially in triple negative breast cancer where no targeted therapies yet exist.

Filming Supported by Amgen