The genes may also determine how life threatening the disease may be in diagnosed patients. The discovery is vital for physicians because it will help physicians predict or identify which diseases will spread aggressively. The new findings will enable doctors on how to potentially address treatments.

Prevalently, the lungs as well as the bones are popular sites for cancer to spread from the breast. When breast cancer metastasizes from the breast to the bones and lungs, it generally leads to cancer-related deaths. Previous research has shown that when breast cancer spreads to organs, it accounts for the majority of breast cancer mortality.

According to Gaorav Gupta, the researcher of the clinical trial on breast cancer, "We are the first to identify a clinically relevant set of genes that can predict metastases of breast cancer to the lungs." The medical research involved a set of breast cancer cell lines from 82 human tumors.

A mouse model was used to imitate the metastases. Then the mouse was injected with the cells. Lung metastases were enabled to formulate. Afterwards, the researcher removed the lung metastases to determine what made the cells so unique that they would be allowed to develop the metastases.

Next, researchers utilized a "micro array" technique which allows all 22,000 genes to be monitored and studies at the same time. The gene causing cancers were identified and returned to the original cells to confirm that they were responsible.