Search Here

Statistics shows one in every eight women (12 percent) in the U.S. will develop invasive breast cancer throughout her lifetime. Men, on the other hand, have 1 in 1,000 chance of developing breast cancer. Women will double her risk of developing breast cancer if she has a first degree relative diagnosed with breast cancer.

There are a lot of screenings to detect if a person has a breast cancer. Some of those procedures include mammogram, breast MRI and biopsy. And chemotherapy is use after surgery to prevent cancer from returning.

But there is a test that might detect if a breast cancer will occur once again. According to Daily Mail, a test called Oncotype DX test will help a lot in identifying whether breast cancer will come back. It is genetic test which would identify high-risk women who should be taking preventive procedures and medicine to stop the development of breast cancer once again.

By using this test, doctors could tell which women need some treatment and which ones are safe. By analyzing the genetic make-up of a tumor, scientist could tell which patients have the high risk of developing breast cancer once again.

A trial conducted at the University Hospital of South Manchester suggests that 63 percent of women with the most common type of breast cancer could avoid undergoing chemotherapy by using Oncotype DX. In Britain, up to 6,000 a year could avoid chemotherapy every year using this genetic test if widely used, as further discussed by Daily Mail.

Researchers underwent a test for 201 women at the Wythenshawe and Christie Hospitals in Manchester. These women had been diagnosed with early detections of ER positive HER2 negative breast cancer, which is the most common type.

Each patient had surgery to eliminate the tumor and was considered to undergo chemotherapy. The researchers analyzed the tumor taken during the surgery. After using the Oncotype DX test, 63% of those women were advised not to push through with the chemotherapy. 98% of them accepted the advice.

According to Medical Daily, more than 318,000 people are expected to be diagnosed by breast cancer. 40,000 of these cases will be fatal. If these diagnosed people will undergo chemotherapy, using Oncotype DX test might help these patients in deciding whether to have chemotherapy once again or not.