Breast cancer: the innovative test that reduces unnecessary chemotherapy

Many women with breast cancer undergo chemotherapy to prevent the recurrence of the disease, which in some cases is not really necessary. A MammaPrint test will help predict the likelihood that the cancer will return, helping prevent chemotherapy for those who do not need it

The most common cancer in women in the country. Breast cancer (Photo: shutterstock)

Breast Cancer Illustration (Photo: ShutterStock)

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women in Israel, with about 31 percent of all cancers in women in Israel, according to the Ministry of Health. In most cases where a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, the disease is definitely curable through partial or complete resection, radiation therapy, hormonal or biological therapy, and / or chemotherapy. These drugs help fight metastasis and reduce the chance of cancer coming back.

Chemotherapy, despite its great effectiveness in the fight against metastasis and tumors themselves, can be quite devastating to other body systems. This is because the treatment not only eliminates the cancerous cells - it also weakens the immune system, can cause hair loss, damages the skin and nails and also damages other and many other systems in the body. Therefore, physicians naturally prefer to reduce chemotherapy for patients who do not need it - but until the last few years, the experts have had trouble figuring out exactly when aggressive chemotherapy can be avoided.

MammaPrint: The genetic test that prevents unnecessary suffering

To help medical teams better tailor treatment to breast cancer patients, it is necessary to understand what the likelihood is that the tumor will return in the post-operative stage for the removal of the cancerous lump. A new breast cancer recurrence prediction test called MammaPrint helps do this in a fairly effective and advanced way.

Memprint is actually a genomic test for growth itself - which examines 70 different genes and predicts whether a woman is at "high risk" or "low risk" to develop metastases in distant areas of the body. The test divides women into two main groups - those at increased risk of recurrence within five years and those at low risk of recurrence during this time. After the test, doctors can recommend chemotherapy only to women who are at increased risk, thus avoiding the complex side effects for those who do not need it.

Chemotherapy can be devastating to various systems in the body. Chemotherapy (Photo: shutterstock)

Chemotherapy (Photo: ShutterStock)

So far, doctors used to assess the risk of recurrence based on clinical and pathological data rather than on a thorough genomic examination of the tumor, but according to such a diagnosis, many women who were clinically defined as having a high risk of recurrence did not really need chemotherapy and received them unnecessarily.

A large-scale clinical study from 2016 followed about 6,700 women and examined which patients could be waived for therapy. The results showed that breast cancer patients, classified as having high clinical risk of metastatic development and recurrence according to common characteristics (about half of women had 1-3 mixed lymph nodes), were diagnosed with a murine test of low genomic risk of recurrence.

The researchers found that in this group of women, whether or not they received chemotherapy, their risk of recurrence was very low (only about 5 percent). In other words, the results of the Mahmprint test have saved many women, 46 percent of high clinical risk owners, the need for chemotherapy, as well as the existing suffering and risk of side effects. Or, in other words, about half of the women who are at high risk of recurrence based on their clinical and pathological characteristics will not need chemotherapy, thanks to the result of a Memprint test.

In the opposite situation, life can also be saved

There are also cases where women are diagnosed according to clinical and pathological data as having low risk of recurrence, so chemotherapy treatments do not appear to be necessary. However, even in such cases, there are women who are at high risk and doctors are not even aware of it. Early clinical trials show that Memphinet also helps in these situations, to identify cases where there is a risk of recurrence - which is hidden from the medical staff.

This important test was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and included in leading international breast cancer treatment guidelines, even for patients with 1-3 mixed glands, at the highest level of evidence.

Today, the heminprint is already used by medical staff at breast cancer treatment institutes in Israel. Thanks to its effectiveness in tailoring the most accurate treatment to the sick, most Israeli health funds are also funding it for their insureds with the aim of saving unnecessary suffering and complex treatments for those who do not need them.