Collagen IV is a fibrous protein that is normally found mainly around the milk ducts in the breast, but in breast cancer also in the supporting tissue of the breast.
The study shows that there is a connection between high levels of the substance in the breast tissue and the risk of widespread breast cancer.
There has been research in the US and Denmark on the importance of collagen IV since before.
In the Swedish study, Malin Jansson, PhD student at Umeå University, looked at the connection with breast cancer.
- Other studies of other forms of cancer, pancreatic and bowel cancer, have shown similar results.
So then we wanted to do it for breast cancer as well, says Malin Jansson, who also works as a senior physician in breast cancer surgery at the university hospital in Umeå.
Connection tissue and blood
The thesis is based on studies of tumor tissue from 1,395 women who were followed up for 20 years.
- Then we could see that there was a much higher collagen content also in the blood of patients with disseminated breast cancer, says Malin Jansson and continues:
- The good news is that the discovery may mean that in the future it will be easier to determine which patients are at greater risk of breast cancer recurrence and should be followed up at more frequent intervals.
When it comes to prostate cancer, today you can test for the disease by measuring the level of the protein substance PSA in a regular blood sample from the armpit.
Five to ten years away before it can be used
Malin Jansson hopes that in the future it will be possible to detect the risk of widespread breast cancer earlier through a similar test.
If the collagen content is high, the patient can be followed up at more frequent intervals, and X-ray examinations can be started.
But the road there is long.
- It is not something you can use in a clinic today, we are at the research level.
It's about five, maybe ten years if it continues at this rate.