nuisance golgotha: simple blood test may predict breast cancer's return

Sunday, January 20, 2013

simple blood test may predict breast cancer's return

(BlackMediaScoop) Scientists say a simple blood test could predict if the most common form of breast cancer will come back after treatment.

By providing an early warning the technique would spare some women unnecessary treatment with gruelling anti-cancer drugs. Researcher Sambasivarao Damaraju said: ?If we can accurately predict which women are at high risk of breast cancer recurrence, it gives the physicians and oncologists treating these women time to design a more aggressive therapy in the hopes of preventing the cancer from coming back.

The kit, which is being developed in Canada, focuses on something called luminal A breast cancer ? the most common form of the disease and the type generally thought to have the best prognosis.

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However, with it making up around 60% of the 50,000 cases of breast cancer diagnosed each year, it still accounts for a substantial number of relapses and deaths. The University of Alberta researchers tested blood samples taken from women when they had been diagnosed with breast cancer years previously.

Other predictor tests in development use the genes from the cancer itself. But the Canadian researchers believe their technique will be more accurate as it uses the DNA a person is born with to work out if they have a predisposition to breast cancer recurring.

It is hoped that in future, the test could be used alongside traditional microscopic techniques to improve the way breast cancer patients are treated. The Canadian charities that funded the research said it would have a ?substantial? impact on ensuring women treated for breast cancer ?continue to live cancer-free lives?.

More research and several years of large-scale testing is needed before the test is marketed. Cancer Research UK said that many scientists, including its own, are trying to perfect such a test.

What do you think?

SCOOP: UNIVERSITYOFALBERTA