Through research conducted on breast cancer, doctors François Fuks, director of the Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory at the Erasme Hospital (ULB), and Christos Sotiriou, Head of Functional Genomics Unit at the Institut Bordet have classified patients with the disease in six categories. This new division will help to individualize the treatment of breast cancer.

The research was conducted through a single platform in Belgium, HiScanSQ able to study the Triactol epigenome (which surrounds the genes and gives an extra reading to the sequence of genes).

The platform allows other words to determine the “profile” of each patient and therefore provide different readings of cancer six categories were identified based on the patient’s immune system.

To do this, the system has identified “epigenetic biomarkers”, able to detect cancers at early stages, classify tumors as molecular and respond to treatment.

These biomarkers will then determine which therapy is most effective (between hormone therapy, chemotherapy and molecular therapy) or if a patient can possibly go without treatment.