The largest study ever conducted in the treatment of breast cancer shows that most women with the most common form of the disease can skip chemotherapy without reducing their chances of beating the disease. These results are expected to save up to 70.000 patients the annual "agony" of chemotherapy and the costs of that treatment. The study involved early-stage breast cancer that has not spread to the lymph nodes and is hormone-positive, meaning its growth is stimulated by estrogen or progesterone and is not the type for which the drug Herceptin is used. Otherwise, the value of chemotherapy in such cases is doubted for longer. About 70 percent of women with the most common early form of breast cancer can be spared chemotherapy, according to scientists. The findings followed genetic tests that analyze the risk of tumors. The usual treatment for breast cancer is surgery followed by hormone-blocking medication for several years. However, many women are also prescribed chemotherapy to kill any stray cancer cells. Doctors know that most people don't need it, but there is little evidence about who can safely go without it.
In the study, 10,273 patients were examined with a test called Oncotype DX (Oncotype DX), which measures the activity of genes involved in cell growth and their response to hormone therapy on biopsy samples, to assess the risk of whether the cancer will return. About 17 percent of women had high-risk results and were advised chemotherapy. The 16 percent with low results know they can skip chemotherapy.
The new results refer to 67 percent of women whose results showed that they have an intermediate risk. All had surgery and hormone therapy, and half of them also received chemotherapy.
After nine years, 94 percent of women from both groups are still alive, and about 84 percent of them have no signs of cancer, which means that adding chemotherapy to the treatment did not affect the chances of survival. Oncologists say that these findings will change practice in hospitals, and mean that women in this group of patients can be safely treated only with surgery and hormone therapy. Chemotherapy is often used after surgery to reduce the chances of breast cancer spreading or coming back. It saves lives, but the side effects of toxic drugs range from vomiting, fatigue and infertility to permanent nerve pain. The results of the study were discussed today at an oncology conference in Chicago and were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute and some foundations, and the proceeds from the sale of US postage stamps for breast cancer were intended for it.
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