Feb 09
13
Breast Cancer Survival Better Foretold With New Tool?
There may be a new tool on the horizon for doctors to use when it comes to determining the likelihood of a woman responding well to treatment for breast cancer. Since we now have genetic testing to tell a woman if she may be more susceptible genetically to getting breast cancer in the first place, this new tool may complement all the other new treatments and testing that are out there now because it may be able to address that one hanging item out there when it comes to successful breast cancer treatment, and that is being better able to tailor treatments to women from the get go so that they have better odds of survival.
How is that done? Well, it’s simple really, it’s a test that can show a woman’s likelihood of survival because it tests how the proteins in the body interact with the cancerous tumor. By looking at this interaction, scientists can better gauge how agressive the cancer may likely be in a woman, and then the doctors can go about tailoring just the right type of treatment for them so they can have the best chances for recovery.
What’s fascinating is that they were able to narrow down the research between survivors and those that did not survive the disease to a commonality in the way the proteins that fight breast cancer were networked in the body. Women who did and did not survive had the same, respectively, look to their networks and because of that similarity, scientists were able to conclude that they had higher or lower rates of survival.
This is key because if doctors know from the onset of the disease what a woman’s likelihood is of survival, they can better align their treatment or therapy with that knowledge. For example, if a woman has a lower likelihood of survival, then they can go with a much more agressive treatment from the beginning.
