New approach to treating aggressive breast cancers by Cambridge researchers shows significant improvement in survival
Professor Jean Abraham and patient Jackie Van Bochoven at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Copyright Stillvision photograph
13 May 2025
Researchers at NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre have shown that a new treatment approach significantly improves survival rates for patients with aggressive, inherited breast cancers.
In a trial where cancers were treated with chemotherapy followed by a targeted cancer drug before surgery, 100% of patients survived the critical three-year period post-surgery.
The discovery, published today in Nature Communications, could become the most effective treatment to date for patients with early-stage breast cancer with inherited BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations.
Breast cancers with faulty copies of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are challenging to treat, and came to public attention when actress Angelina Jolie, a BRCA1 carrier, underwent a preventative double mastectomy in 2013.
Current standard treatment aims to shrink the tumour using chemotherapy and immunotherapy, before removing it through surgery. The first three years after surgery is a critical period, when there is the greatest risk of relapse or death.
The Partner trial took a different approach and demonstrates two innovations: the addition of a targeted cancer drug, olaparib, and chemotherapy pre-surgery, and the benefits of careful timing of when the treatments are given to patients. Taken as tablets, olaparib is already available on the NHS.
Led by Addenbrooke’s Hospital, part of Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Cambridge, the trial saw patients recruited from 23 NHS sites across the UK.
Results show that leaving a 48-hour “gap” between chemotherapy and olaparib, leads to better outcomes, possibly because a patient’s bone marrow has time to recover from chemotherapy, while leaving the tumour cells susceptible to the targeted drug.
Of the 39 patients who received chemotherapy followed by olaparib, only one patient relapsed three years after surgery and 100% of patients survived.
In comparison, the survival rate for the control arm was 88% three years after surgery. Of the 45 patients on the control arm who received chemotherapy only, nine patients relapsed, of whom six died.
Jackie Van Bochoven – Copyright Stillvision photography
Jackie Van Bochoven, 59, from South Cambridgeshire, was diagnosed in February 2019 with a small but aggressive tumour. She 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 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.
It may also have cost-saving benefits for the NHS, as patients currently offered olaparib take the drug post-surgery for 12 months, whereas patients on the trial took the tablets pre-surgery for 12 weeks.
