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A new treatment approach significantly improves survival rates for patients with aggressive, inherited breast cancers, say Cambridge researchers led by a St John’s academic.

In a trial where cancers were treated with chemotherapy followed by a targeted cancer drug before surgery, 100 per cent of patients survived the critical three-year period post-surgery.

Trial leader Professor Jean Abraham, a consultant at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Professor of Precision Breast Cancer Medicine and a Fellow of St John’s, said: “It is rare to have a 100 per cent survival rate in a study like this and for these aggressive types of cancer.

“We’re incredibly excited about the potential of this new approach, as it’s crucial that we find a way to treat and hopefully cure patients who are diagnosed with BRCA1 and BRCA2 related cancers.”

Around one in 400 people carry mutations in either the BRCA 1or BRCA 2 genes.

Jackie Van Bochoven, 59, from Cambridgeshire, has a family history of breast cancer and carries a faulty copy of the BRCA1 gene, which significantly raises her risk of the disease during her lifetime and those of her three daughters.

She was diagnosed with an aggressive breast tumour in 2019and took part in the trial, called Partner. Jackie said: “When I had the diagnosis, I was completely shocked and numb, I thought about my children, and my mum and sister who were diagnosed with breast cancer. I was pretty worried.

“Six years on, I’m well and cancer free. I’m back at work, enjoying life and spending time with my family. When you’ve had cancer, I think you look at life differently and every day is a bonus.”

The research has been published in Nature Communications and Professor Abraham and team are now planning a larger, multinational trial with 600 patients to validate its results.

The findings have the potential to be applied to other cancers caused by faulty copies of BRCA genes, such as some ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancers.

Michelle Mitchell, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “While this research is still in its infancy, it is an exciting discovery that adding olaparib at a carefully-timed stage of treatment can potentially give patients with this specific type of breast cancer more time with their loved ones.

“Research like this can help find safer and kinder ways to treat certain types of cancer. Further studies in more patients are needed to confirm whether this new technique is safe and effective enough to be used by the NHS.”

The Partner trial was sponsored by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Cambridge, funded by Cancer Research UK and AstraZeneca, and supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre and Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT).

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Reference

Abraham, JE et al. 

Nat Comms; 13 May 2025;DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59151-0

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