Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences (KIRAMS) said its research team has developed an indicator that can predict breast cancer patients who show radiation resistance after the surgery.

Radiotherapy is a basic and useful treatment to prevent relapse and spreading for patients who had a partial mastectomy. However, some patients experience difficulties in therapy because the effect of radiotherapy is weak and cancer recurs.

The researchers, led by Drs. Kim Jae-sung and Seong Min-gye, analyzed clinical data of 1,770 breast cancer patients from 2008 to 2015. They proved that breast cancer could recur as phosphorylated S6 Kinase (p-S6K1) protein, which is involved in the growth and proliferation of cancer cells, is activated.

Among 1,770 patients, 1,317 received postoperative radiotherapy, and 998 of them revealed p-S6k1, showing a local relapse rate 4.3 percent higher than the group that did not reveal it.

Also, they found that by injecting everolimus, which suppresses the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), a higher factor that controls p-S6K1, physicians can raise the effectiveness of radiotherapy.

"We think we have managed to present a new treatment method that maximizes the radiotherapy effect on breast cancer," Dr. Seong said. "We expect the result will contribute to increasing the survival rate of breast cancer patients."

Their report, titled "Predicting radiation resistance in breast cancer with expression status of phosphorylated S6K-1," was published on the online edition of Scientific Reports, a sister journal of Nature on Jan 1, 2020."

The Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology supported the study as part of its Radiation Technology Development Program.

Drs. Kim Jae-sung (left) and Seong Min-gye of Korea Cancer Center Hospital

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