LONDON, ENGLAND, July 24, 2008: Breast cancer research needs to investigate how a person’s ethnicity influences their response to treatment and its outcome, according to a new Comment piece in Friday’s Lancet by researchers from Imperial College London. Emerging evidence suggests that particular drugs may benefit people from one ethnic group more than others, because of differences in their genetic makeup. Most key trials looking at treatments for breast cancer have been carried out in predominantly white populations in Europe, North America and Australasia. Other populations might not respond to a drug in the same way as the white populations in these trials, argue the researchers writing today. They suggest that clinical trials should record participants’ ethnicity and analyze whether there are differences in how patients from particular ethnic groups respond to a particular therapy.
“Everyone responds differently to treatment and it’s often very difficult to predict how well someone will respond to a particular drug. However, evidence is now emerging that shows how your genes might influence whether or not a particular treatment can help you.
“There are small genetic differences between people from different ethnic backgrounds and it is really important that we find out whether these genetic differences mean that certain drugs perform well in people from certain ethnic groups but not in others. It’s only by doing this that we can make sure each individual receives the best possible care,” added Dr Palmieri.