Chemotherapy is the most used treatment option for most cancer patients regardless of the stage of their disease. A new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine have shown that a genetic test can successfully identify early stage breast cancer patients who can skip chemo because they would unlikely benefit from it anyway.
The researchers, led by Dr. Joseph Sparano of Montefiore Medical Center in New York, presented their study at the European Cancer Congress in Austria. According to their findings, the test Oncotype DX, which has been used for one decade now, works well for a small group of patients and it was able to identify patients who do not need the weakening treatment.
"This is really great news for the patients we're treating" says Dr. Sharon Giordano, an oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who wasn't involved in the study.
This genetic test analyzes 21 genes in the cancer tumor to identify a woman's risk of the cancer coming back after removing it, NPR News reports. Thus, for the patients who used the said test and was identified as low risk patients, 99% of them did not develop metastatic cancer after five years.
These patients just underwent hormone-blocking medications and they were not recommended to undergo chemotherapy because it will do little for their disease. Also, exposing them to the treatment option would expose them to the numerous side effects and other health risks, reports ABC News.
In the study, they used the genetic test on 10, 273 women ages 18-75 who were diagnosed with early stage hormone positive breast cancer which involves female hormones like estrogen and progesterone. In the United States, around 2 of 3 women have hormonal breast cancer, Medical News Today reports.
Most of these women undergo surgery and hormonal therapy. However, many of those diagnosed with hormonal breast cancer would be advised to undergo chemotherapy in order to fully destroy all cells that might have spread to other parts of the body.
"The compelling results seen in this global study provide unequivocal evidence supporting the clinical utility of Oncotype DX to risk-stratify patients with early-stage breast cancer, and indicate that the findings are generalizable to everyday clinical practice," Dr. Sparano said.