None of the patients had cancers that spread to their lymph nodes, and they were all hormone-positive, meaning that their tumors grew because they were fueled by either estrogen or progesterone.
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The Oncotype DX portfolio of breast, colon and prostate cancer tests applies advanced genomic science to reveal the unique biology of a tumor in order to optimize cancer treatment decisions. Researchers hopes that the new study will gain a few attention and encourage more women who suffer of breast cancer to take it.
The study demonstrated that a group of early-stage breast cancer patients with low Oncotype DX Recurrence Score results of 10 or less who received hormonal therapy alone without chemotherapy had less than a one percent chance of distant recurrence at five years.
A genetic test may be able to determine whether women with early-stage breast cancer can skip chemotherapy treatment and beat the disease with hormone therapy, according to a study released Monday. This secondary option consists of surgery and years of taking a hormone-blocking drug.
Study author Dr. Kathy Albain, an oncologist at Loyola University Medical Center, said the news brings reassurance to women and physicians alike. Dr. Clifford Hudis from The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, offered a statement of his own agreeing with Dr. Sparano.
These findings, researchers concluded, provide the highest level of evidence that the multigene test can spare the use of chemotherapy in women with low-scoring tumors who otherwise would receive chemotherapy.
Past research has also found that the gene test could be used as a guide when having to choose between chemo and other treatments, but researchers were anxious that the test may be inaccurate and risky to a few patients.
The research was funded by the National Cancer Institute. In other words, going forward, a subset of women will not undergo the most grueling part of breast cancer treatment.
For the worldwide, case-control study, researchers compared children age 12 to 42 months who mothers received a cancer diagnosis during pregnancy with matched children of women without cancer.
Results showed that prenatal exposure to maternal cancer with or without treatment did not negatively affect cardiac, cognitive, or general development of children in early childhood.
“Pregnant women with cancer can be treated just as effectively as non-pregnant women”, Amant added.
Based on the results of her test, doctors told Ann Louise she could avoid chemotherapy.
The gene test will help doctors find out whether they should focus on the chemotherapy’s benefits or side-effects for every patient individually. “From the beginning I made the most radical choice”, she said.
Chemotherapy, though it’s capable of slowing down cancer, isn’t pretty.
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“All of these companies that are competing to provide these tests to patients, the more people in competition, the more benefit that will come out for the patients”, says Raymond.
