New studies have found that many women could be spared from chemotherapy or get gentler versions of it without harming their chances of beating the disease.
Chemotherapy is usually recommended to treat women with breast cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes.
One study found that a gene test called Oncotype DX can predict whether or not a patient will benefit from chemotherapy. The test measures the activity of 21 genes to predict a woman’s risk of recurrence. The test was carried out on 367 women whose hormone-driven cancer had spread to lymph nodes. After a decade of treatment, women who had low scores on the gene test received no benefit from chemo, while those with high scores did better with chemo.
Another study found that some women did better and were able to survive or less likely to get a relapse if they were given a less harsh drug than Adriamycin, a mainstay of cancer treatment for decades. More than 1,000 women were tested with two chemotherapy drugs – Adriamycin, which raises the risk of heart problems and leukemia, and Taxotere, which is not linked to heart problems.
After seven years of medication, 87 percent of women given Taxotere survived compared with only 82 percent of those who took Adriamycin. In fact, those given Taxotere were less likely to have had a recurrence.
The findings of these studies were presented last month at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Source: “Study: Not All Breast Cancers Need Chemo” CBS New, December 13, 2007
Chapter: Cancer :: 9 January 2008
