No small mercy
Experts hail breakthrough breast cancer study
CHEMOTHERAPY is a gruelling treatment and finding a way to limit its use has been a long-held ambition.
So it’s a massive breakthrough that thousands of breast cancer patients in Britain could now avoid it.
It all comes down to knowing whether the chemo will actually benefit patients – and specialists say the research behind it is definitive.
The test has already been available on the NHS for five years, so this could make big changes to life quality, and quickly.
It’s tough enough dealing with cancer – reducing the need for chemo is a major breakthrough.
DR ALISTAIR RING ON IMPACT OF THE STUDY
EXPERTS have hailed a landmark study that could spare up to 5000 breast cancer patients a year from needless chemo.
The research, involving a genetic test available on the NHS, revealed the treatment helped less than a third of women with the most common form of early-stage breast cancer following surgery.
It is set to save the NHS millions and one doctor said patients would start benefiting from today.
Specialist Dr Alistair Ring, of Royal Marsden Hospital, London, said it was the biggest development for 20 years and a “step change”.
He added: “Chemotherapy will drop. As an oncologist, on Monday in the clinic I’ll offer less chemotherapy that will not be of benefit.”
Charities also welcomed the news.
Lawrence Cowan, Scotland manager at Breast Cancer Now, said: “This is another important step towards personalised breast cancer treatment. We hope these major findings will now help refine our use of chemotherapy on the NHS in Scotland.”
Rachel Rawson, of Breast Cancer Care, added: “This life-changing breakthrough is wonderful news and could liberate thousands of women from the agony of chemotherapy.”
The TAILORx trial was unveiled at the American Association of Clinical Oncologists in Chicago – the world’s biggest cancer conference.
Researchers enrolled 10,273 US women with HR+HER2-AN- breast cancer, which accounts for 23,000 of the 55,000 diagnoses in the UK each year. Patients were randomly assigned chemo or alternative treatment and followed for up to nine years.
They had also been scored with the Oncotype DX genetic test, which assesses how cancer is likely to respond to treatment.
Those with a recurrence score of up to 10 out of 100 have been shown not to benefit from chemo and those with a score above 26 do benefit. Until now, it was unclear if those in between – the vast majority – would be helped.
The study found over-50s scoring up to 25 did not need chemo, nor did under-50s with a score up to 15.
Instead they could be treated by standard drugs such as Tamoxifen.
It means between 3000 and 5000 women diagnosed in the UK every year will avoid side effects, including hair loss and severe vomiting.
The test costs £2500, while chemo typically costs £4500 per patient.
Lead author Dr Joseph Sparano, of Montefiore Medical Centre in New York, said: “Any women with early stage breast cancer 75 or younger should have the test and discuss the results of TAILORx with her doctor.”
On Monday in the clinic I will offer less chemo that won’t be of benefit