WHAT MAKES LOBULAR BREAST CANCER DIFFERENT? UNLOCKING THE BIOLOGY OF INVASIVE LOBULAR CARCINOMA
A/Prof McCart Reed discusses what researchers are learning about the biology of invasive lobular carcinoma, recent discoveries, and how this research could lead to better outcomes for people living with a lobular diagnosis.
What Makes Lobular Breast Cancer Different? Unlocking the Biology of Invasive Lobular Carcinoma
Invasive lobular carcinoma is the second most common type of breast cancer, yet there is still much to learn about what makes this disease biologically distinct.
Associate Professor McCart Reed discusses what researchers are learning about the biology of invasive lobular carcinoma, recent discoveries shaping our understanding of the disease, and how this research could potentially lead to more personalised treatments and better outcomes for people living with a lobular diagnosis.
“The way the different morphologies or the growth patterns of breast cancers are diagnosed means that you either have a special feature or you don’t. And if you don’t, you’re an invasive carcinoma of no special type or a ductal cancer.”
“And then the special types all have these unusual growth patterns. And lobular breast cancer is known for the fact that the cells can grow through the tissue without attaching to each other.”
“They grow in this single file line of cells, which is part of the biology that contributes to some of the difficulties around lobular breast cancer. It’s harder to image. They don’t always form a lump because they don’t grow in this tight ball. So, there’s a lot of consequences from this special growth pattern.”
“Lobular breast cancer, cancer is different in the way it looks and grows and its clinical course is also different. And so there needs to be something that’s driving this difference in the cancer cell type and forcing the normal cells to behave like this. So, I’m trying to understand what’s happening at the molecular level.”
“I’m looking at what’s going wrong in the genes and proteins that give these cells the capacity to grow in this special way and in understanding this better, then that can really help us to think about ways we can design drugs to target these special growth patterns.”
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Invasive lobular carcinoma is the second most common type of breast cancer, yet there is still much to learn about what makes this disease biologically distinct. In this episode, we sit down with Associate Professor Amy McCart Reed to explore the molecular underpinnings of invasive lobular carcinoma.
Key takeaways
- Invasive lobular carcinoma is biologically distinct from other breast cancers: ILC is not simply another form of breast cancer. Unlike ductal cancers, lobular cancer cells lose their ability to stick together and grow in characteristic “single-file” patterns through breast tissue. This unique biology affects how the disease develops, behaves, and spreads.
- Lobular breast cancer can be harder to detect and monitor: Because lobular cancer cells grow in a dispersed pattern rather than forming a dense lump, ILC can be more difficult to image and diagnose. This creates challenges not only for detection but also for assessing the extent of disease and monitoring treatment response.
- Researchers are uncovering new molecular targets for treatment: Recent discoveries have improved understanding of how lobular cancer cells interact with their surrounding tissue and how they use oestrogen receptor signalling differently from other breast cancers. These findings are revealing potential new drug targets that could lead to more effective therapies specifically designed for ILC.
- Lobular-specific treatments are a key step toward personalised medicine: While the long-term goal is fully personalised treatment, Professor McCart Reed emphasises that simply having therapies designed specifically for lobular breast cancer would be a major advancement. Current treatments are often based on evidence generated from broader breast cancer populations rather than the specific biology of ILC.
- More research, clinical trials and better imaging are urgently needed: A major barrier to progress is that people with lobular breast cancer are sometimes excluded from clinical trials because standard imaging may not accurately measure their disease. The field is now focusing on developing better imaging technologies, such as FES-PET, expanding clinical trial access, and building research collaborations to accelerate discoveries and improve outcomes.
What have been some of the biggest discoveries in recent years that are changing the way researchers think about ILC?
“Well, we’re starting to understand a lot more about how the cells can grow without holding on to each other, as it were. And so, we know that there’s little changes that are occurring in the matrix that the cells sit in that give lobular cancer cells this capacity to grow. And that provides us with a possible intervention point for new drugs.”
“We also understand now that the lobular cancer cells use their oestrogen receptor signalling in a slightly different way to what we would have predicted. And so that is also going to be a potential intervention point.”
“So, there’s all this new information about different pathways that we kind of understood in breast cancer or so we thought, which are operating slightly differently in lobular breast cancer. And now we need to really dive into that a bit deeper.”
Are we looking to move more towards personalised treatment?
“Yes, so ideally personalised treatment is the end goal, but I think even for now, lobular specific treatment would be an awesome first step.”
“If we were just able to give people living with a lobular breast cancer diagnosis, a drug that’s designed for that type of breast cancer, that would be an amazing first point to start with. And then we can start to think about matching a patient to a therapy as well.”
“Well, one of the really big things that is kind of forgotten about for lobular, is because it’s capacity to be imaged isn’t as reliable as other cancer subtypes. So often patients can’t be included in clinical trials because they don’t meet the clinical trial resist guidelines.”
What’s the research that needs to be done in this space to kind of move towards that?
“So, we need more research. We need more clinical trials for lobular breast cancer. We need to be able to include patients living with lobular in existing clinical trials. And we need to have a little bit more infrastructure to support the collection of samples so that we can do more detailed research in the lab.”
“I think the field is really starting to focus in on what lobular cancer is lacking in terms of research and therapeutic intervention. So that’s a great start, and we’re starting to see large groups of researchers and clinicians come together to really strategise how to attack these problems with big groups coming out of Europe and the US.”
“And we’re also trying to put together these kinds of groups in Australia and New Zealand as well. And I think with that critical mass, we’re going to start to see some really exciting findings that are going to be able to be taken into the clinic.”
“In terms of exciting technologies, I think the lobular community is very excited about different imaging technologies that seem to be better suited for lobular breast cancer.”
“For example, FES-PET (Fluoroestradiol Positron Emission Tomography) and other imaging modalities which will really help understand the extent of disease and give lobular patients a little bit more clarity about where their disease is at.”
“Then from a more biological perspective in terms of looking at the genes and proteins, I’m hopeful that we’ll get some specific prognostic and diagnostic predictive tests that we can roll out to the clinic.”
“Lobular breast cancer is different and we can’t forget that. There’s a different course of disease and we need to be mindful of how we talk about it to people living with the lobular diagnosis.”
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A/Prof Amy McCart Reed
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What Makes Lobular Breast Cancer Different? Unlocking the Biology of Invasive Lobular Carcinoma
Associate Professor McCart Reed discusses what researchers are learning about the biology of invasive lobular carcinoma, recent discoveries shaping our understanding of the disease, and how this research could potentially lead to more personalised treatments and better outcomes for people living with a lobular diagnosis.
Listen On SpotifyPodcast Transcript
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What Makes Lobular Breast Cancer Different? Unlocking the Biology of Invasive Lobular Carcinoma
Invasive lobular carcinoma is the second most common type of breast cancer, yet there is still much to learn about what makes this disease biologically distinct.
In this episode, we sit down with Associate Professor Amy McCart Reed to explore the molecular underpinnings of invasive lobular carcinoma.
Associate Professor McCart Reed discusses what researchers are learning about the biology of invasive lobular carcinoma, recent discoveries shaping our understanding of the disease, and how this research could potentially lead to more personalised treatments and better outcomes for people living with a lobular diagnosis.
“The way the different morphologies or the growth patterns of breast cancers are diagnosed means that you either have a special feature or you don’t. And if you don’t, you’re an invasive carcinoma of no special type or a ductal cancer.”
“And then the special types all have these unusual growth patterns. And lobular breast cancer is known for the fact that the cells can grow through the tissue without attaching to each other.”
“They grow in this single file line of cells, which is part of the biology that contributes to some of the difficulties around lobular breast cancer. It’s harder to image. They don’t always form a lump because they don’t grow in this tight ball. So, there’s a lot of consequences from this special growth pattern.”
“Lobular breast cancer, cancer is different in the way it looks and grows and its clinical course is also different. And so there needs to be something that’s driving this difference in the cancer cell type and forcing the normal cells to behave like this. So, I’m trying to understand what’s happening at the molecular level.”
“I’m looking at what’s going wrong in the genes and proteins that give these cells the capacity to grow in this special way and in understanding this better, then that can really help us to think about ways we can design drugs to target these special growth patterns.”
As our understanding of the molecular drivers of Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC) continues to grow, what has been some of the biggest discoveries in recent years that are changing the way that researchers think about this subtype of breast cancer?
“Well, we’re starting to understand a lot more about how the cells can grow without holding on to each other, as it were. And so, we know that there’s little changes that are occurring in the matrix that the cells sit in that give lobular cancer cells this capacity to grow. And that provides us with a possible intervention point for new drugs.”
“We also understand now that the lobular cancer cells use their oestrogen receptor signalling in a slightly different way to what we would have predicted. And so that is also going to be a potential intervention point.”
“So, there’s all this new information about different pathways that we kind of understood in breast cancer or so we thought, which are operating slightly differently in lobular breast cancer. And now we need to really dive into that a bit deeper.”
Are we looking to move more towards personalised treatment?
“Yes, so ideally personalised treatment is the end goal, but I think even for now, lobular specific treatment would be an awesome first step.”
“If we were just able to give people living with a lobular breast cancer diagnosis, a drug that’s designed for that type of breast cancer, that would be an amazing first point to start with. And then we can start to think about matching a patient to a therapy as well.”
And what’s the research that needs to be done in this space to kind of move towards that?
“Well, one of the really big things that is kind of forgotten about for lobular, is because it’s capacity to be imaged isn’t as reliable as other cancer subtypes. So often patients can’t be included in clinical trials because they don’t meet the clinical trial resist guidelines.”
“So, we need more research. We need more clinical trials for lobular breast cancer. We need to be able to include patients living with lobular in existing clinical trials. And we need to have a little bit more infrastructure to support the collection of samples so that we can do more detailed research in the lab.”
“I think the field is really starting to focus in on what lobular cancer is lacking in terms of research and therapeutic intervention. So that’s a great start, and we’re starting to see large groups of researchers and clinicians come together to really strategise how to attack these problems with big groups coming out of Europe and the US.”
“And we’re also trying to put together these kinds of groups in Australia and New Zealand as well. And I think with that critical mass, we’re going to start to see some really exciting findings that are going to be able to be taken into the clinic.”
“In terms of exciting technologies, I think the lobular community is very excited about different imaging technologies that seem to be better suited for lobular breast cancer.”
“For example, FES-PET (Fluoroestradiol Positron Emission Tomography) and other imaging modalities which will really help understand the extent of disease and give lobular patients a little bit more clarity about where their disease is at.”
“Then from a more biological perspective in terms of looking at the genes and proteins, I’m hopeful that we’ll get some specific prognostic and diagnostic predictive tests that we can roll out to the clinic.”
“Lobular breast cancer is different and we can’t forget that. There’s a different course of disease and we need to be mindful of how we talk about it to people living with the lobular diagnosis.”
