Breast Cancer Patients Get New Test for Who Is Most Likely to Die
A molecular test can pinpoint which patients will have a very low risk of death from breast cancer even 20 years after diagnosis and tumor removal, according to a new clinical study led by UC San Francisco in collaboration with colleagues in Sweden. As a result, “ultralow” risk patients could be treated less aggressively and overtreatment avoided, leading to fewer toxic effects. “This is an important step forward for personalizing care for women with breast cancer,” said lead author Laura J. Esserman, MD, MBA, a breast cancer specialist and surgeon with UC Health. “We can now test small node-negative breast cancers, and if they are in the ultralow risk category, we can tell women that they are highly unlikely to die of their cancers and do not need aggressive treatment, including radiation after lumpectomy.” Oncologist have discussed the existence of ultralow risk tumors and expressed concern that they might be exacerbated by...