Breast cancer trial aims to reduce treatment side effects
Southampton researchers are set to study how women's fat and muscle affects their chemotherapy.
The research, funded by the charity Breast Cancer Now, will allow them to investigate why some women experience worse side effects. Overall, 250 women will take part across the country, including at Southampton General Hospital.
The team are led by Professor Ellen Copson. They hope the research could, one day, lead to chemotherapy doses being tailored to a woman’s body to minimise side effects.
Severe side effects
All the women taking part in the trial have secondary (or metastatic) breast cancer. This is when breast cancer cells spread from the first cancer, in the breast, to other parts of the body.
It’s commonly treated with chemotherapy. However, some women experience such severe side effects from this that they have to stop the treatment. These include nausea, vomiting, extreme fatigue and anaemia.
The researchers will measure 250 women's grip strength and 'body composition' - the relative amounts of muscle and fat in their body.
They will do this before chemotherapy starts, and again after three and six months. They will also ask the women questions about their mental and physical wellbeing.
The researchers will use this to understand how body composition affected the women's experience of side effects. It will also help them investigate how muscle mass and body fat levels change during treatment for secondary breast cancer.
The Southampton team have been awarded £246,101 for the project.
Dr Simon Vincent is Breast Cancer Now’s director of research, support and influencing. He said: “With an estimated 61,000 people living with secondary breast cancer in the UK, research like this is crucial to ensuring that these women, who’ll be on treatment for the rest of their lives, have the best quality of life possible so they can enjoy the precious time they have left with their family and friends.”
Tailored treatment
The researchers hope that, in future, chemotherapy doses could be tailored to a woman’s body composition to minimise side effects.
Prof Copson is a professor and medical oncologist at the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton.
She said: “Most chemotherapy doses are calculated using height and weight, and don’t account for body composition, such as the amount of muscle mass or body fat the person has.
"We know that this can impact how drugs affect people and how effective they are, but this is the first time we will study this in women with secondary breast cancer.
"We want to know how body composition impacts chemotherapy, and the side effects patients experience, so we can use this information to better guide treatment for women.”
Claire’s experience
Claire Wraight, 42, an educational psychologist from Reading was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2022. She had a lumpectomy, lymph node removal and partial reconstruction.
In the following months, Claire started to experience new aches and pains. But she put these down to radiotherapy and the tamoxifen she was taking to reduce the risk of the breast cancer returning.
Claire said: “I had to keep going back to my GP as I knew something wasn’t right. I eventually had blood tests and CT scans, which confirmed that the cancer had spread to my spine and liver and was now incurable. I barely had time to process the information, and had to start chemotherapy right away.”
Claire had 13 rounds of weekly chemotherapy. She was responding well despite experiencing challenging side effects. She said: “I had a lot of side effects, from severe skin rashes to insomnia. I also started to experience a numbness and tingling in my hands, which was when my oncologist decided to withdraw this course of treatment, as there were concerns over permanent nerve damage.”
Coming off a treatment that was working filled Claire with anxiety. She said: “I was left with concerns about whether an alternative treatment would be as effective. I’ve started a new type of targeted oral therapy and the side effects have been more manageable, but my white blood cell numbers have dropped, so that’s being monitored.”
Claire is passionate about supporting research to reduce the severity of chemotherapy side effects in secondary breast cancer. She said: “This new research is so important, as all of us with secondary breast cancer will be on treatments for the rest of our lives. Finding out why side effects are caused, and how to reduce them, could have a huge impact on our quality of life.”
Image: Professor Ellen Copson (centre) and her research team in Southampton.