Adipocytes and breast cancer

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Role of Adipocytes in breast cancer

• IRAS ID

  166142

• Contact name

  Raghu Adya

• Contact email

  r.adya@warwick.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  University of Warwick

• Duration of Study in the UK

  1 years, 0 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  Over weight women following menopause are at a higher risk of developing breast cancer. Scientific studies have shown that breast fat tissue secretes molecules, which may play a role in development and progression of breast cancer. Therapeutic strategies in combating breast cancer have targeted molecules involved in these processes. In our research experiments we have identified one of these molecules secreted from breast fat tissue that has shown to bear critical impact in the development and progression of breast cancer. More importantly, we have preliminary data, which shows that by decreasing the amount of this fat secreted molecule, breast tumour growth is significantly decreased (~ 2.5 fold). We will be conducting further experiments to establish the precise role of fat tissue secreted molecules in the development of breast cancer. The results of this study will be vital in the development of novel chemotherapeutic drugs in treating breast cancer.
  We will consent and recruit 300 women attending Mr Khan's "new breast referral clinics" with a suspected clinical diagnosis of breast cancer. Mr Khan will perform breast tissue biopsy procedures and send the samples (in coded anonymised form) to histopathologist (Dr Emma Simmons) who will microscopically examine the tissue biopsy sections to confirm if the sections are tumorous or benign (non-cancerous). We will be using only surplus slides for the experiments following histopathological diagnosis. From these surplus slides we will isolate the fat cells and measure the differences in expression levels of molecules involved in breast cancer progression between cancerous and non-cancerous samples. Additionally we will obtain blood samples from the recruited subjects and measure the circulating levels of molecules involved in breast cancer to compare the differences in local site specific expression and systemic (circulating) expression of these molecules involved in breast cancer.

• REC name

  North West - Haydock Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  15/NW/0506

• Date of REC Opinion

  11 Jun 2015

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion