Oncotype DX™ Changes Treatment Decisions in One Quarter of Breast Cancer Patients

This an article about treatment based on genetic assessment.

The principle seems to make a great deal of sense especially for younger sufferers who are understandable concerned as to treatment effects issues of fertility etc.

Overtreatment is a recognised problem.

Treatment dissatisfaction is reported as very much higher in the young sufferer group.

Tests of this nature look as if they may help assess the risks and so help in the balancing decisions on chances of a particular chosen treatment being "sucessful" and the impact on fertility etc.

Most stats for early diagnosis sufferers concentrate of regional reoccurence and not absolute survival.

This is not the only commercially available test of this nature.

This has been trialed to test tumour samples taken some time ago v outcome and a good correlation found. I will try and find the link and post it.

I think I have read some insurance companies are now funding it on the grounds of saved treatment costs.

As usual a complex subject best discussed with your advisor, and checking for yourself.

RB

http://patient.cancerconsultants.com/news.aspx?id=35713

ABSTRACT

Researchers at the New York University School of Medicine and the US Oncology Research Network recently reported use of the Oncotype DX™ test to predict risk of breast cancer recurrence altered treatment decisions in 25% of patients with node-negative, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. These results were recently presented at the 28th annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS).

Adjuvant chemotherapy and/or hormone therapy have resulted in better survival among women with early-stage breast cancer. Because some women are at higher risk of cancer recurrence, and are more likely to benefit from these treatments than others, tests to predict risk of recurrence may allow for more individualized treatment approaches.

Oncotype DX is a test indicated for patients with newly diagnosed stage I or II, node-negative, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer who will be treated with tamoxifen. The test evaluates a panel of 21 genes to predict a patient’s 10-year risk of cancer recurrence. The test classifies patients as being at high, intermediate, or low risk of recurrence based on a Recurrence Score.