Treatment of breast cancer used to mean aggressive chemotherapy, with its attendant host of side effects. A set of new findings have shown that thousands of early cases need not resort to chemo treatments to have the best chance at a good outcome.
For most breast cancer patients today, it’s standard practice to include endocrine therapy and chemotherapy, especially for younger women who can cope better with the usually uncomfortable side effects of the treatments, as The Guardian pointed out.
Even after decades of development, chemotherapy patients are still often subjected to nausea and vomiting, fatigue, a weaker immune system and hair loss. In a few cases, the treatment could even lead to leukemia, as it could damage the bone marrow which affects the production of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.
It turns out that there are many breast cancer patients that do not have to go through all those and still have a great prognosis for their recovery.
“Practically speaking, this means that thousands of women will be able to avoid chemotherapy, with all of its side effects, while still achieving excellent long-term outcomes,” Dr Harold Burstein, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, said about the landmark study that focuses on customizing breast cancer treatments for each patient’s case.
The study looked at 10,000 women aged 18 to 75, all of which…
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