Gene Tests Identify Breast Cancer Patients Who Can Skip Chemotherapy, Study Says.
'When is it safe for a woman with breast cancer to skip chemotherapy?
A new study helps answer that question, based on a test of gene activity in tumors. It found that nearly half of women with early-stage breast cancer who would traditionally receive chemo can avoid it, with little risk of the cancer coming back or spreading in the next five years.
The so-called genomic test measures the activity of genes that control the growth and spread of cancer, and can identify women with a low risk of recurrence and therefore little to gain from chemo.
“More and more evidence is mounting that there is a substantial number of women with breast cancer who will not need chemotherapy to do well,” said Dr. Rachel A. Freedman, a breast cancer oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. She was not involved in the study.'>>>
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/science/gene-tests-identify-breast-cancer-patients-who-can-skip-chemotherapy-study-says.html?
= new reply since forum marked as read
she was certainly thrilled at that news.
i was even more thrilled when i found that her oncotype score indicated that the odds of recurrence were barely different from the general population.
so far so good 
