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MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Sulla

Most women with the most common form of early-stage breast cancer can safely skip chemotherapy without hurting their chances of beating the disease, doctors are reporting from a landmark study that used genetic testing to gauge each patient's risk.

Cancer care has been evolving away from chemotherapy - older drugs with harsh side effects - in favor of gene-targeting therapies, hormone blockers and immune system treatments. When chemo is used now, it's sometimes for shorter periods or lower doses than it once was. The breast cancer study focused on cases where chemo's value increasingly is in doubt: women with early-stage disease that has not spread to lymph nodes, is hormone-positive (meaning its growth is fueled by estrogen or progesterone) and is not the type that the drug Herceptin targets.

Source: http://abc7ny.com/health/study-finds-that-many-breast-cancer-patients-can-skip-chemo-/3557439/

takyon writes:

Breast cancer: Test means fewer women will need chemotherapy

About 70% of women with the most common form of early stage breast cancer can be spared the "agony of chemotherapy", researchers say. It follows trials of a genetic test that analyses the danger of a tumour.

Cancer doctors said the findings would change practice in UK clinics on Monday, and meant women in this group could be treated safely with just surgery and hormone therapy. Charities said the news, affecting 3,000 UK women a year, was "wonderful".

Also at NPR.

Adjuvant Chemotherapy Guided by a 21-Gene Expression Assay in Breast Cancer (open, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1804710) (DX)

Original Submission