New breast cancer test can predict risk of recurrence of cancer

Marking a new and peculiar advancement, researchers have developed a new test that can anticipate the risk of recurrence of cancer, thus saving breast cancer patients from unnecessary pain of chemotherapy.

The samples of tumor that is removed during surgery are analysed through a test called Oncotype DX and provide a score between 1 and 100 on the probability of return of the disease.

As per the reports by express.co.uk, Professor Nigel Bundred, a leading breast cancer surgeon at the hospital in London said, "Thousands of women are undergoing unnecessary chemotherapy because of the failure to make this available to everyone".

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The team conducted a trial called Plan B that included over 4,000 patients in 12 centres in Germany and it was revealed that test was effective in women whose cancer remained in the breast as well as in those patients whose cancer had spread to the lymph nodes.

The study that was published in the journal Clinical Oncology showed that 98 percent of patients with a low recurrence score who avoided chemotherapy after surgery survived at least five years without their cancer returning, the researchers said.