SCIENTISTS DEVELOP GENOMIC TEST TO DETERMINE WHO ACTUALLY NEEDS CHEMOTHERAPY

LONDON, MAY 30 /SRNA/ - Scientists have developed a genomic test that can accurately detect which breast cancer patients truly need chemotherapy.

The test in question is Prosigna, which analyzes the activity of 50 genes in tumor tissue to determine the molecular subtype of the cancer and calculate the risk of the disease returning over the next 10 years, The Guardian reports.

Based on this result, doctors can evaluate whether chemotherapy is justified.

As part of the international Optima study, led by the University of London, more than 4,000 patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer were monitored across the United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand.

The trial included patients over the age of 40 with hormone-positive breast cancer.

In the first, control group, patients received chemotherapy followed by hormone therapy, while in the second group, doctors made treatment decisions based on the genomic test.

Five years after treatment, 95 per cent of patients in the first group were alive and the disease had not returned, while in the group where some patients skipped chemotherapy based on the test, that percentage was 94.

The results of this major international study, which will be presented this weekend at a global cancer conference in Chicago, could change treatment guidelines worldwide, The Guardian writes.

Lead researcher Rob Stein said they used tumor biology to make decisions, stating that patients will be spared the physical and emotional burden of chemotherapy and its possible long-term consequences.