Stanford, California (AHN)- U.S. and Dutch researchers found distinct "healing" gene patterns, which they believe could reflect how aggressive a breast tumor is likely to be. Genes may help predict breast cancer patients' long-term health. But they said more research was needed to see if the find would aid treatment. Cancer charities echoed this caution about the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Patrick Brown, from Stanford University, working with a team at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, followed what happened to 295 patients with early breast cancer up to 12 years after surgery for their tumors. They also analyzed each patient's tumor to see what gene pattern it had - which genes were active and which were not. Some of the patients' cancers had gene patterns similar to those seen in wounds during healing. These included genes involved with new blood vessel growth. When the researchers compared these patterns with the patients' outcomes they found those patients who fared the worst had similar gene patterns. v