Irish scientists have begun an investigation which they hope will provide a better understanding of blood clotting in breast cancer patients.

Cancer patients have a high risk of developing spontaneous blood clots, with up to 20% hospitalised with life-threatening complications as a result. In fact, clot formation is the second leading cause of death for all cancer patients.

Tumour cells appear to promote clots within the bloodstream, which facilitates cancer spreading within the body. Clinical studies suggest that treatment with an anti-clotting agent may improve a patient's chance of survival by preventing clots, as well as reducing the spread of cancer.

The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) University of Medicine and Health Sciences has partnered with LEO Pharma to investigate, for the first time, the biological mechanisms that make this possible in breast cancer.

They will be focusing on the role of a blood clotting protein in the spread of the disease.

According to the RCSI, anti-clotting agents are already used in the clinic to manage cancer-associated clotting. However, this research may help in improving the strategies used to treat certain patients, and it could lead to new therapies that would reduce the spread of breast cancer to other parts of the body.

"This collaboration will enable us to address key scientific questions to understand the complex biological processes regulating spread of cancer within the body and is essential to help develop novel therapeutic approaches to help prevent this," commented Dr Jamie O'Sullivan, a research lecturer in the Irish Centre for Vascular Biology at the RCSI.

He added out that this research has the potential to expand beyond the current remit, and could also apply to other types of cancer too.