A new breast cancer test – Oncotype DX – that could spare thousands of women the ordeal of chemotherapy has been approved – by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) – for use in the NHS in England and Wales.
The test works out the odds of a some tumours spreading round the body and should help doctors decide more accurately which patients will need chemotherapy.
Read ‘Chemotherapy-sparing’ test offered, by James Gallagher, BBC News, 26 Sept 2013
Sources: Gene expression profiling and expanded immunohistochemistry tests for guiding adjuvant chemotherapy decisions in early breast cancer management: MammaPrint, Oncotype DX, IHC4 and Mammostrat
NICE, September 2013