Millions of people with breast cancer could safely avoid chemotherapy as scientists have developed a DNA test that can distinguish between patients who are likely to benefit from the treatment and those who are not, according to trial results.<\/p>\n
The international study found that more than two-thirds of its participants could be spared the side of effects of chemotherapy and treated with hormone therapy alone.<\/p>\n
Chemotherapy can cause fatigue, nausea, hair loss, a weakened immune system and fertility issues.<\/p>\n
The study, led by University College London (UCL), involved more than 4,000 newly diagnosed patients over the age of 40 in the UK, Norway, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand.<\/p>\n
Scientists used a gene test called Prosigna to measure the activity of 50 genes involved in breast cancer growth and calculate a patient’s risk of the disease returning.<\/p>\n
Those who received a low score – two-thirds of the group – were not treated through chemotherapy. The five-year survival rate of their group was 93.7%, compared with a 94.9% rate among patients who received chemotherapy as part of their care.<\/p>\n
The primary treatment for breast cancer is usually surgery to remove tumours. Chemotherapy is often recommended afterwards to diminish the risk of return.<\/p>\n
It is also regularly offered to people with early-stage breast cancer that has spread to the nearby lymph nodes.<\/p>\n
Clinicians are concerned the treatment provides little benefit to those with the most common type of breast cancer, UCL said.<\/p>\n
The university said more than 5,000 NHS patients a year could avoid chemotherapy as a result of the trial.<\/p>\n
Karen Bonham, from Cardiff, took part in the trial and said the results are an “immense relief” and feel “like Christmas”.<\/p>\n
The 64-year-old avoided chemotherapy thanks to the Prosigna test and has instead received radiotherapy and hormone therapy over eight years.<\/p>\n
“Cancer diagnosis and treatment can be shocking,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It certainly propels you into a world of uncertainty. Life priorities realign – you simply want to survive.”<\/p>\n
The findings of the study will be presented at the world’s largest cancer conference, the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting, in Chicago, United States, on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Professor David Miles, a leading cancer specialist, described the findings as “practice-changing”.<\/p>\n
“We can now confidently predict many patients will get no benefit at all, and therefore there’s no need for them to have the chemotherapy,” he told BBC’s Newshour.<\/p>\n
He added that the test would allow doctors to “confidently define a large population of women who simply aren’t going to benefit and don’t need to go through all that unpleasantness for no benefit at all.”<\/p>\n
“We used to give chemotherapy to 100 women to benefit 10, knowing that 90 didn’t need it,” he said.<\/p>\n
Tanya Hutson, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022 and had chemotherapy as part of her treatment, called the new DNA test “absolutely amazing”.<\/p>\n
“It just proves what happens when money is put into research,” she said, adding that chemotherapy had been “brutal”.<\/p>\n
“For all these people out there who don’t need it but are still getting it – it’s an absolute game changer.”<\/p>\n
It is not known whether the findings apply to people under the age of 40, with a result still several years away, according to UCL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millions of people with breast cancer could safely avoid chemotherapy as scientists have developed a DNA test that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704637,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[76284,11026,49,48,28867,84,62180],"class_list":["post-704636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-benefit","tag-breast-cancer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chemotherapy","tag-health","tag-university-college-london"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}