One in three breast cancer patients doesn’t need chemotherapy

Nurse at work.Photo: Tore Meek / NTB scanpix

A third of breast cancer patients do not need chemotherapy according to a new American study. In Norway, the treatment is over diagnosed to many patients, said a cancer specialist.

 

The study shows that chemotherapy after surgical treatment can be avoided in 70% of women with breast cancer in a subset of the disease, so-called hormone-sensitive breast cancer without proliferation, according to VG newspaper.

Half of the women with breast cancer in Norway have this diagnosis.Research is relevant to approximately 1,600 Norwegian women.

“We can save thousands of women from getting a poisonous treatment they really don’t need. This will change the treatment practice around the world,” said Ingrid A. Mayer at Vanderbilt Medical Center to the New York Times newspaper. She is one of the researchers behind the study from the Clinical Research Center at the Albert Einand Montefiore Health System in New York.

Research showed that chemotherapy in addition to hormone therapy didn’t increase survival rates for 70% of women. By using a gene test, researchers can determine which patients this applies to.

Senior physician at the Cancer Department at Haukeland University Hospital, Hans Erik Eikesdal, said to the newspaper that he hopes the study shows how important it is to get genetic testing in Norway.

“There are too many patients in Norway being over treated,with all the side effects it brings with it. The results of this study must be brought home. It may lead to changes in practice.’’

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today