| One of the most significant concerns of breast | | | | For patients who have been recently diagnosed with |
| cancer patients is the rate at which the cancer is | | | | breast cancer, there is no hundred percent accurate |
| likely to spread. If the rate and aggressiveness with | | | | way of predicting whether the cancer cells will return |
| which the cancer will spread cab be determined, the | | | | with a vengeance even after they finish treatment. |
| aggressiveness of the chemo treatment can also be | | | | If doctors are able to identify those patients who |
| determined. Patients with a type of cancer that is | | | | need especially aggressive chemo sessions because |
| less likely to spread need not be treated as | | | | their cancer cells have a propensity to spread rapidly |
| aggressively as the ones with cancer that has a | | | | and aggressively, the right treatment can be |
| tendency to spread rapidly. | | | | administered at the right time to save lives. At the |
| Breast cancer is a disease that takes a physical and | | | | same time, unnecessary treatments and hardships |
| emotional toll on the patient. The violent effects of | | | | can also be avoided by patients who do no |
| chemo on the body disturbs even the strongest of | | | | particularly need aggressive chemo courses. |
| individuals. Therefore, if the strength of the chemo | | | | The researchers studied a group of women with |
| treatment that must be administered can be | | | | cancer that had not spread to their lymph nodes and |
| determined it will be of great help to several women | | | | who had not received any chemo or hormonal |
| suffering from this devastating disease. | | | | therapy. The results that were gathered from them |
| As a result of recent studies, researchers have been | | | | were then used to analyze the tumor cells and |
| able to discover how to determine, with a certain | | | | identify the specific markers that predict relapse of |
| level of accuracy, the rate at which the breast | | | | cancer. Studying how these genes travel give |
| cancer cells in a particular patient is likely to spread. | | | | researchers a fairly accurate method of predicting |
| This is groundbreaking research because as of now | | | | what type of cancer they are dealing with, whether |
| there is no reliable method by which physicians can | | | | the cancer cells are likely to return in future and |
| predict what cancers will spread and how rapidly they | | | | whether it will spread aggressively. |
| will. This makes it very difficult to determine which | | | | The results of the study give patients more options |
| patients should receive aggressive chemo and which | | | | to decide on how they need to approach the |
| ones need not. | | | | disease. |