News Health and Medicine Breast cancer patients welcome genomic test that predicts risk of recurrence
| Breast cancer patients welcome genomic test that predicts risk of recurrence |
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| Wednesday, October 17, 2007 | |
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New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the National Institutes of Health finds most breast cancer patients would be receptive to a new genomic test that can determine the chance of breast cancer recurrence and help plan treatment. New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the National Institutes of Health finds most breast cancer patients would be receptive to a new genomic test that can determine the chance of breast cancer recurrence and help plan treatment. Currently, breast cancer physicians make treatment decisions and predict the risk of recurrence based largely on the location and size of the tumor and if the cancer has spread to lymph nodes and distant sites of the body. But not all patients who are similar in terms of these clinical indicators get the same benefits from treatment. In an attempt to remedy that situation, scientists studying the genetics of breast cancer at UNC and elsewhere have identified a number of patterns in the genes of individual tumors that make them biologically different from others and which could provide valuable clinical information, such as how likely the tumors are to be invasive, how well they might respond to different treatments and how likely they are to recur or spread. While the test is still under study and a not yet a part of clinical care, it appears that such differences in gene expression patterns may be used to individually tailor treatment. The new study, from UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, School of Public Health and department of psychology in the College of Arts & Sciences is the first to demonstrate breast cancer patients’ interest in genomic risk testing and how these results might influence decisions about adjuvant care. |