About 250,000 are diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S., and of that number, about 63,000 have early-stage breast cancer

New Study Offers Great News for Early Stage Breast Cancer Patients

Diane Lilli
Posted

A new study focusing on 60,000 women has just been made public, and states women with early-stage breast cancer who would currently receive chemotherapy would not need it.

This study was made public when it was presented last night, June 3, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The women with early stage breast cancer had gene tests conducted that could identify specific tumor samples, at the early-stage of breast cancer.

It was found that these women with early-stage breast cancer could avoid chemotherapy and instead only take a drug that would block estrogen.

The doctors noted that this is for most women but not all, with early-stage breast cancer. For example, if a women's breast cancer has metastasized or if the tumors are large, the patient may still need chemotherapy.

The new study, called the TAILORx trial, studied 9,717 women with early-stage disease. These women were 18 to 75 years old, and focus was specifically on their estrogen-receptor-positive, HER2-negative cancers, which had not spread to the lymph nodes.

The good news is that doctors now can use a new tool to determine if a women with early-stage breast cancer can forgo chemotherapy and instead take estrogen blockers or drugs that stop estrogen from being made in the body.

Updates to follow.