"Inside these humble-looking jars is the core of Joan Brugge's current multiyear research project. This story was produced in partnership with KFF Health News. Brugge lifts up one of the jars and gazes at it with reverence. Each jar holds samples of breast tissue donated by patients after undergoing a tissue biopsy or breast surgery samples that may reveal a new way to prevent breast cancer."
"And their painstaking work, unspooling across six years of the seven-year, $7 million federal grant, has yielded results. In late 2024, Brugge and her colleagues identified specific cells in breast tissue that contain the genetic seeds of breast tumors. And they discovered that these "seed cells" are surprisingly common. In fact, they are present in the normal, healthy tissue of every breast sample her lab has examined, Brugge says,"
Joan Brugge's laboratory at Harvard Medical School analyzes donated breast tissue samples to map early cellular changes that precede tumors. The team has examined more than 100 samples using high-powered microscopes and computer algorithms to diagram stages from initial cell mutation to tiny pre-tumor clusters. The work has progressed under a seven-year, $7 million federal grant and yielded a late-2024 discovery of specific cells that contain genetic seeds of breast tumors. Those "seed cells" appear commonly, even in normal tissue from patients without cancer. The laboratory's next objectives are to detect, isolate and eliminate mutant seed cells to prevent tumor formation.
Read at www.npr.org
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