Many breast cancer patients could safely avoid chemotherapy: Study

Breast cancer treatment has come a long way, but one of the hardest questions has always been: who really needs chemotherapy, and who can safely do without it?
Chemotherapy saves lives, but it also comes with serious side-effects and long-term risks. A new study, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Chicago, shows that a DNA-based test of the tumour can help two-thirds of certain breast cancer patients safely avoid chemotherapy without significantly compromising their long-term outcomes. Here’s what you need to know. The new approach uses a genetic test to measure the activity of a set of cancer-related genes in the tumour.
Instead of just looking at the cancer under a microscope, the test looks inside the cancer cells and measures how strongly certain genes are switched on or off. From this, it calculates a score that reflects how aggressive that particular tumour is and how likely it is to come back after standard treatment.
Doctors then use this score to guide treatment decisions. If the score is low, it suggests the cancer is less aggressive and that surgery, radiotherapy and hormone tablets are enough, so chemotherapy can be safely avoided.
If the score is high, it signals a higher risk of the cancer returning, and chemotherapy is recommended because it is more likely to make a real difference. In other words, the test helps separate patients into those for whom chemo will genuinely help and those for whom it would be all harm and no extra benefit.
This is a big step because it is based on a large, rigorous, late-stage clinical trial. For this particular, very common type of early breast cancer, the study shows that more than two-thirds of women who look high risk by traditional measures can safely skip chemotherapy if their gene test score is low, without losing protection against the cancer coming back.
That means fewer women being put through months of hair loss, nausea, fatigue, infection risk, early menopause, possible infertility and long-term heart or nerve effects when it doesn’t actually improve their outlook. Source: PTI