Two major studies released Sunday show that many people with breast and lung cancers may forgo chemotherapy and still live longer, signaling a waning need for what was long seen as the standard of cancer care.
The findings were released at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, the world’s largest annual cancer conference.
The first study, described as the largest breast cancer treatment trial to date, found that the majority of women with a common form of breast cancer may be able to skip chemotherapy and its toxic, and often debilitating, side effects after surgery depending on their score on a genetic test.
As many as 65,000 women in the United States alone could be affected by the findings.
Until now, women have faced considerable uncertainty about whether to add chemo to hormone therapy after a diagnosis with hormone-receptor positive, HER-2 negative breast cancer when found at an early stage, before it has spread to the lymph nodes.
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Source: Seychelles News Agency
