Genomic test could spare millions of breast cancer patients chemotherapy
The Optima trial, led by University College London, followed more than 4,000 patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer across the UK, Norway, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand and Thailand and found that patients with low scores on a genomic-risk test could be treated safely with hormone therapy alone. Those low-score patients experienced near-identical cancer outcomes compared with patients WHO received chemotherapy in addition to hormone therapy. The result means clinicians can avoid chemotherapy's short- and long-term toxicities and costs for a sizable subset of patients while maintaining treatment effectiveness. If guideline bodies adopt Optima's criteria, millions of women with early-stage breast cancer worldwide could avoid unnecessary chemotherapy.
