New Test May Mean Faster Breast Cancer Treatment

Well there is a new test that has led to the conclusion of a quicker detection of breast cancer in breast cancer victims. This will be unlike the previous method that involves the use of a genome test that would apply to lymph-node negative and estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. It is applicable to all women diagnosed with breast cancer. The research was done by Dr. Matthew Ellis of the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University in St. Louis and Barnes Jewish Hospital. They tested over 1000 breast cancer tumors and found 50 genes to would help identify the 4 different types of breast cancer tumors known. Which are Luminal A, Luminal B, HER2-enriched, and basal-like tumors. The genetic test performed was called an OncotypeDx however it doesn’t identify all of the types. The first type they decided to incorporate was basal-like tumors and they did so by molecular profile basis. This is believed to be important because basal-like tumors have shown to have caused the most severe and aggressive types of cancer yet they are the most sensitive to chemotherapy. A 5th type of breast cancer tumor can be seen at times called the normal-like which is actually an indicator as it is really an insufficient amount of tumor cells to make a diagnosis. The 50 gene treatment was very accurate when predicting how the cancer patients would react to chemotherapy. Luminal A was not sensitive to chemotherapy; Luminal B was the least sensitive and Basal-like was the most sensitive. This is very important because breast cancer is very treatable when discovered early and now with this new information the cancer will be found sooner therefore treatment will begin right away. It also gives a good idea of what type of treatment will be most efficient and which will most likely fail.

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