HBKU Leads Regional Study to Advance Breast Cancer Detection and Care

Partnering with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and King Hussain Cancer Center (KHCC), researchers are developing novel blood-based biomarkers tailored to breast cancer patients in the region.

Could tiny molecules circulating in the blood offer new clues to breast cancer? Researchers at the Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI), part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), are exploring this possibility through a regional study investigating the potential of microRNAs in breast cancer detection and management.

Led by QBRI, the study forms part of its Breast Cancer Interdisciplinary Research Program, which brings together laboratory, genomic, and clinical research to better understand the disease and translate scientific discoveries into precision oncology approaches for patients in Qatar and the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Published in the Journal of Translational Medicine, the study was carried out in collaboration with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in Qatar and King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC) in Jordan. It included breast cancer patients recruited in Qatar and Jordan, representing multiple nationalities from across the MENA region.

Applying Nobel-Winning Science to Breast Cancer Research

The scientific importance of microRNAs was recognized by the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded jointly to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for discovering microRNAs and their role in controlling gene activity. MicroRNAs are tiny molecules our cells produce naturally. They control how genes work and influence many normal processes in the body.

Researchers worldwide are now investigating whether changes in microRNAs can provide useful information about diseases such as cancer. Because some microRNAs circulate in the bloodstream, they are particularly interesting as potential markers that could provide information about cancer through a simple blood sample.

The QBRI team is led by Dr. Nehad Alajez, who brings over 20 years of experience in cancer and microRNA research. Building on this long-standing expertise, the team investigated circulating microRNAs as minimally invasive biomarkers for breast cancer.

Researchers analyzed blood samples from 152 women with breast cancer, measuring over 800 different microRNAs and comparing their microRNA patterns against non-cancer control groups. They identified groups of microRNAs present at different levels in women with breast cancer. When several of these molecules were considered together, they distinguished breast cancer samples from non-cancerous samples with promising accuracy.

An important part of the study tested whether the findings could also work beyond the original group of patients. The researchers therefore evaluated selected microRNA patterns using large international datasets. For example, a five-microRNA pattern continued to distinguish breast cancer from non-cancer samples when tested in independent international datasets.

These findings do not mean that a new blood test is ready to replace mammography, imaging, or tissue biopsy. Instead, they show that microRNAs in the blood deserve further study as an additional source of information to complement established breast cancer detection approaches. With clinical validation, this method has the long-term potential to contribute to future population-level breast cancer screening strategies.

Could a Blood Sample also Indicate Treatment Response?

The researchers also explored whether microRNAs measured prior to treatment might provide clues about patients’ response to chemotherapy given before breast cancer surgery.

The study identified a pattern involving 14 microRNAs that helped distinguish between patients who still had cancer after treatment and those in whom no invasive cancer was detected at surgery. While encouraging, the researchers emphasize that this part of the study is still exploratory due to the relatively modest number of patients and will need to be confirmed in larger, independent studies before it could be considered for clinical use.

Regional Collaboration at the Heart of the Study

A key strength of the research is the close partnership between QBRI and major clinical institutions in Qatar and Jordan. QBRI researchers worked alongside clinicians and scientists from HMC and KHCC, combining expertise in cancer biology and genomics with clinical experience, patient samples, and clinical information.

Such collaborations matter because MENA populations remain underrepresented in many international genomic and cancer biomarker studies. Generating high-quality research data involving patients from the region can help determine whether discoveries made elsewhere are equally relevant to local populations, while also allowing researchers to identify biological patterns that may be important within the region.

Advancing Precision Oncology in Qatar and the MENA Region

The research reflects the broader goals of QBRI’s Breast Cancer Interdisciplinary Research Program, which aims to connect scientific discoveries with clinically relevant questions and build the evidence needed to advance precision oncology in the region.

Precision oncology seeks to understand the biological characteristics of an individual patient’s cancer and use that information to support more personalized approaches to care. Blood-based research is particularly attractive because blood samples are relatively easy to collect and can potentially be taken repeatedly during a patient’s care.

In the future, microRNA measurements could complement information from imaging, pathology, and other molecular tests. However, several steps remain before such approaches can become part of routine patient care. Larger prospective studies are needed to confirm the findings and determine whether reliable, reproducible, and practical simplified tests can be developed for clinical laboratories.