In the trial, less than 1 percent of women who used the gene test to skip chemo saw their breast cancer recur five years later.
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The research team was amazed by the finding as Dr. Joseph Sparano, field expert working at the Montefiore Medical Center, New York, and the study’s lead author, offered a statement informing that “You can’t do better than that”.
Using a gene-activity test, called the Oncotype DX, doctors can decide to treat patients using other less-toxic methods like surgery, radiation and hormone therapy.
In the U.S., breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women after skin cancer, affecting about 230,000 new patients annually.
New studies provide evidence that information from the Oncotype DX genomic breast cancer test should be included in treatment decisions, according to test developer Genomic Health.
These women were monitored closely for five years. Over half of the 930 patients in the analysis were identified as low-risk and were treated with hormone therapy alone based on Recurrence Score results. Albain says continued followup is needed to determine whether any women in a larger group, with tumours in the intermediate-score range, can safely skip chemotherapy. Results on these groups are not yet ready, as the study is continuing. Based on their numbers they can be categorized as low, intermediate or high risk. They also noted that the five-year overall patient survival was 98 percent.
“These findings will give women with early-stage breast cancer greater certainty that anti-estrogen therapy will decrease their risk of recurrence and increase their chance for survival whereas chemotherapy will not”, she adds.
The study examined more than 100 children that had been exposed to cancer treatments during the last two trimesters of their mother’s pregnancy and found they had normal cognitive and cardiac functionality.
The study will also investigate how useful the test can be for women who might have a few cancer cells in their lymph nodes.
The gene test will help doctors find out whether they should focus on the chemotherapy’s benefits or side-effects for every patient individually.
Mary Lou Smith, an advocate and breast cancer survivor herself, helped to design the study trial. “I’ve had chemotherapy. It’s not pretty”.
“Dr. Karen Beckerman, a New York City obstetrician diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011, said she was advised to have chemo but feared complications”.
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In the editorial accompanying the study in the publication, Dr. Clifford Hudis mentions one big obstacle, which is the raised cost of the test. Even though insurers like Medicare cover it, the test is about $4,000; patients whose tumors score between 11 and 25 are automatically covered.
