According to a study published in The Lancet Oncology, using a genomic test that looks at 50 genes could prevent chemotherapy in up to 40 percent of women with breast cancer. The use of a genomic test that analyzes 50 genes could prevent chemotherapy (QT) in up to 40 percent of women suffering from HER2-positive breast cancer, a subtype that accounts for about 20 percent of all patients diagnosed with cancer Of the breast, according to data from the Pamela study of the Solti group, published in the latest issue of The Lancet Oncology.
Aleix Prat, the study’s principal investigator and head of Medical Oncology at the Barcelona Clinic, said that the analysis indicates that the HER2-enriched phenotype, which accounts for 60 percent of patients, identifies those with a high efficacy with a Anti-HER2 treatment without chemotherapy.
In the study, an anti-HER2 biological treatment based on two drugs, lapatinib and trastuzumab, was used for 18 weeks and then operated. The results show that the tumor disappeared completely in 40 percent of patients with a HER2-enriched genomic profile, whereas this only occurred in 6 percent of patients with the other genomic profiles.
In addition, in the group of patients with a HER2-enriched profile the tumor was significantly reduced very early, a fact that was confirmed after biopsy at two weeks of treatment, Prat says.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(17)30021-9/abstract
