Shanghai medical experts in cancer treatment discovery

Local medical experts have found an explanation for the spread of breast cancer into armpit lymph nodes.

The discovery will be used in the development of new drugs.

Breast cancer, despite being a chronic disease, can be prevented and treated.

However, about 30 percent of patients have been found to have metastasis during their first outpatient service, and 25 percent of metastasis is in the lymph nodes in armpits.

"Such metastasis seriously impacts treatment effect and patient survival," said Dr Shao Zhimin, director of the Shanghai Cancer Center's breast surgery department.

Compared with those without cancerous cells in armpit lymph nodes, five-year survival for patients with one to three such nodes drops by 10 percent and 35 percent if four or more such nodes, said Shao.

"Overall spreading of cancer or cancerous cells is the major cause of death for breast cancer patients," he said.

"Detecting the mechanism of breast cancer cells 'running' into armpit lymph nodes or other organs and then developing the drug or target to block such ways can greatly improve treatment effects."

Dr Yu Keda from Shanghai Cancer Center and his team cooperated with another two leading hospitals in the nation to successfully disclose the reason why some breast cancer cells "run" into armpit lymph node.

They spent two years establishing and studying a database with 65,968 cells, discovering the reason and pathway of breast cancer cells' early metastasis.

"During the process, cancerous cells also renovate their energy metabolism pattern to achieve a long-distance transfer," said Yu.

"If the target can be made into new drug, it is probable to prevent breast cancer cells 'running' into armpit lymph node. Our team will do further research based on the discovery."

The findings were published by world-leading journal Advanced Science.