Test helps decide breast cancer treatment

Test helps decide breast cancer treatment
SALT LAKE CITY (UPI) -- A new test helps physicians determine the best possible treatment for breast cancer and if chemotherapy will be effective, U.S. researchers say.

Dr. Philip Bernard of the University of Utah's Huntsman Cancer Institute and colleagues at several universities said only recently have scientists known there are different breast cancer subtypes that lead to differences in outcome.

Fifty genes have been identified by the researchers that play an important role in identifying subtypes of breast cancer. By measuring the expression level of these genes in the tumors, the researchers could determine how each patient will respond to standard therapies, Bernard said.

The research translates into a simple test that will be available nationwide this summer, said Bernard, the senior author of the study.

"Our research shows that there is a subset of women who can be cured without getting any treatment at all, other than a lumpectomy," Bernard said in a statement. "In women whose tumors have spread, we can predict with very high accuracy which women are going to respond to chemotherapy and which type of chemotherapy will work -- if chemo isn't going to be beneficial, we shouldn't be giving it."

The findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.


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