By Vera Viner
When a woman becomes diagnosed with breast cancer, she may have the fear of death surrounding her for years or even decades. Even when breast cancer is cured, the fear of recurrence strikes a chord in many women. Breast cancer survivors may have overcome the initial diagnosis and treatment, but there are still countless women who have their cancer return.
However, science research has once again brought us good news. A new test has been developed to see which women may have their cancer come back within a 10-year period, according to CBS News.
“We have validated a unique ‘fingerprint’ in the primary tumor of breast cancer patients that can help identify a high or low risk of cancer recurrence,” Dr. Paul Goss, director of the Breast Cancer Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, said in a release.
The researchers focused on three ways that are currently being used to anticipate recurrence risk in women with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers. The three methods include the breast cancer index (BCI), the Oncotype Dx Recurrence Score, and a genetic test used to study the ICH4 gene, which is linked to the disease.
The tests were used to study 665 patients. The researchers compared the test results with the patients’ histories to see if breast cancer recurred within five years and after ten years. Only the BCI method was able to accurately predict the recurrence risk within 10 years. All of the methods, however, were able to distinguish the risk within five years time. The test was able to show that 60 percent of the patients were at very low risk of recurrence while 40 percent were at a significant long-term risk.
“Since the BCI identifies two distinct risk groups, it may provide a much-needed tool in determining those patients who need extended hormonal therapy and those who may be spared its well-known adverse side effects,” study leader Dr. Dennis Sgroi, a cancer researcher and pathologist at MGH, told the news source.
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