Scientists say they have a near-perfect picture of the genetic mutations that cause breast cancer. Their findings could help unlock new ways of treating and preventing the disease.
For the past six years an international team of scientists has been looking deep into the DNA of 560 breast cancer patients from around the world. Their findings could help unlock new ways of treating and preventing the disease.
An international team went through 3 billion genetic code sequences - from hundreds of patients around the world - and identified 93 genes which can mutate to trigger the disease.
The report author, Dr Serena Nik Zainal from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the UK, says the study took six years to complete.
"Getting a comprehensive collection of information, including the mutations that are causing cancer, tells us something about why that cancer is going wrong, why that cell is turning into a cancer cell. If you can understand that, you can understand the causes of the cancer, and then you can treat it a lot better."
Scientists say the data could lead to the widespread use of treatments tailored to the individual patient.
It could still be at least a decade until patients can get any new drugs. Even then, cancer has ways of developing resistance to new therapies.
But this research is a huge step in the right direction and could one day help improve the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of patients.
Almost 16-thouand cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in Australia last year alone.
