Tumour profile tests to benefit extra patients

MORE people with breast cancer could be spared chemotherapy after a health watchdog recommended the wider use of tumour profiling tests.

The tests provide information on the genetic makeup of tumours and can help medics and patients decide whether chemotherapy is really needed to prevent cancer coming back.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) is backing three tests – Prosigna, Endo Predict and Oncotype DX – for a new group of NHS patients.The results, which are returned in days, help predict the risk of cancer returning after surgery when combined with other factors such as tumour size.

If it is a low risk, patients may opt not to have chemo. Nice spokesman Mark Chapman said: “Having chemotherapy will be the right choice for some but for others they will not have to face the side-effects which come with it.”

Prof Simon Holt, from Swansea University and Prince Philip Hospital in South Wales, said use of Oncotype DX in particular “will reduce suffering and inconvenience” by sparing up to 85% of eligible people unnecessary chemo.

The Nice ruling, benefiting around 3,000 patients, means tests will be expanded to men and post-menopausal women who have ER or PR-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer with one to three positive lymph nodes.

They are already used for people with ER-positive, HER2-negative, lymph-node negative early breast cancer.