Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer: Does it Help?
Lets start with a mind boggling fact: Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer often does NOT help patients.
70% of breast cancer patients do not need chemotherapy*
What is Chemotherapy?
Chemotherapy (also known as chemo) is a form of cancer treatment. Depending on the aggressiveness and type of the cancer your doctor would decide which chemotherapy drug is suitable. Everyday our cells divide and grow, when one has cancer these cancer cells grow in an uncontrollable manner. Chemotherapy treatment, interferes with this growth and targets hormones and enzymes so the tumor would ‘starve’ and not grow. In turn yields to severe side effects of chemotherapy such as hair loss, nausea/vomiting, fatigue, low white blood cell count, weaker immune system, low blood platelet count and more. There are many types of chemotherapy for breast cancer.
If one has cancer do they have to take chemotherapy?
No. Depends on the chances of cancer recurrence and the type of the current cancer.
Cancer recurrence is the chance of a cancer coming back after a period of time where the cancer could not be detected. Local recurrence is when the cancer comes back on the same spot and distant recurrence is when it has travelled to a new location. There are tests such as EndoPredict that test the chances of your cancer’s recurrence.
EndoPredict classifies which patients require Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer
EndoPredict test may be widely used to help make treatment decisions based on the cancer’s risk of coming back in a part of the body away from the breast (distant metastasis) within 10 years after diagnosis. EndoPredict is for HR-positive, HER2-negative, node-negative breast cancer patients.
The EndoPredict test analyzes the activity of 12 genes in breast cancer cells. These genes are linked to the likelihood that the cancer will come back in a part of the body away from the breast within 10 years after diagnosis. The EndoPredict test gives your result in a form of a EPclin Risk Score.
- an EPclin Risk Score higher than 3.3287 (higher than a 10% risk of recurrence) is interpreted as the cancer having a high risk of recurrence
- an EPclin Risk score lower than 3.3287 (lower than a 10% risk of recurrence) is interpreted as the cancer having a low risk of recurrence
- each EPclin Risk Score is shown on a curve to clarify an individual’s personal risk of recurrence *
What will EndoPredict tell me?
EndoPredict answers 3 vital questions:
- What is the risk of my cancer returning?
- Can I consider safely forgoing chemotherapy?
- Will I still need hormone therapy after 5 years?
These 3 questions will provide your doctor better information that can impact treatment plan.
Is EndoPredict reliable?
EndoPredict has been validated in approximately 4,000 patients and has been used clinically in more than 25,000 patients. The EndoPredict test is included in The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Guidelines (USA) for breast cancer.
Read about EndoPredict vs Oncotype DX: “EndoPredict markedly outperformed Oncotype DX across the 10-year follow-up period with prognostic power more than four times higher”
Reference:
https://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/testing/types/endopredict-test
