It is an essential part of cancer treatment; its toxic side-effects seen as an unavoidable fallout. However, now, far fewer women who suffer from breast cancer will need to undergo chemotherapy. This possibility has been thrown up by an international study that is relevant to women who have early-stage breast tumours that have not spread to the lymph nodes; are sensitive to oestrogen; test negative for a protein called HER2; and have a score of 11 to 25 on the Oncotype DX Breast Cancer Assay, a widely used test in the US that gauges the activity of a panel of genes involved in cancer recurrence. The study, which began in 2006 and included 10,273 women aged 18 to 75, found that the target group of women could benefit from oestrogen therapy alone, where a drug is administered to either block the hormone oestrogen or stop the body from producing it. What’s more, endocrine therapy was found to lower the risks of recurrence, new breast tumours and death from the disease. The findings of the study have been published in New England Journal of Medicine.

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Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
August 2018