The rise of bespoke treatment

PERSONALISED medicine is a recent development in cancer care which sees the patient undergoing genetic testing on their tumour at an early stage of diagnosis. The results enable doctors to tailor treatment – for example, which chemotherapy is most effective of the tumour type.

A 2016 US study found that personalised cancer care was six times as effective at shrinking tumours as general treatment, and in cases where the cancer returned, it took twice as long to grow back.

There are a handful of gene tests for breast cancer. However, at the moment, only Oncotype DX is approved by the NHS.