NEW YORK, March 27 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they've identified a marker that could lead to a test to identify the likelihood of breast cancer metastasis.
New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center said the marker Tumor Microenvironment of Metastasis is associated with the development of distant organ metastasis through the bloodstream, which is the most common cause of death from breast cancer.
An estimated 40 percent of breast cancer patients relapse and develop metastatic disease, the university said Friday in a release.
"Currently, anyone with a breast cancer diagnosis fears the worst -- that the cancer will spread and threaten their lives. A tissue test for metastatic risk could alleviate those worries, and prevent toxic and costly measures like radiation and chemotherapy," senior author Dr. Joan G. Jones, professor of clinical pathology and laboratory medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, said in a statement.
The findings are published online in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
