Genomic Testing Used During Early-Stage Breast Cancer Diagnosis

National Insurance Services has partnered with Grand Rounds to help our clients reduce their health insurance claims. In this article, Grand Rounds discusses why chemo may not always be necessary in some breast cancer cases.

In the U.S., a woman has a 1 in 8 chance of developing breast cancer.¹ When faced with this diagnosis, the patient’s selection of an “oncologist to see can have a dramatic impact on the care they receive.”²

In the latest medical breakthrough, some early-stage breast cancer patients have benefited from genomic testing. This testing can help “identify which cancer patients can safely forgo chemotherapy.”² But, despite this development, “many oncologists continue to recommend chemotherapy… without ever conducting the tests to see whether such treatment is likely to provide any clinical benefits.” ²

“One recent study found that only 27% of eligible breast cancer patients received genomic testing…³ and research suggests that genomic testing could help up to 40,000 American women with early-stage breast cancer avoid unnecessary chemotherapy.”⁴

Read more here.

¹“Breast Cancer Risk and Risk Factors,” BreastCancer.org, http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/risk. June 2016

²Freese, Nate. “Top Quality Oncologists Use Genomic Testing to Guide Treatment Decisions.” Web blog post. Grand Rounds, 18 September 2017. Web. 23 February 2018.

³“Gene Tests Identify Breast Cancer Patients Who Can Skip Chemotherapy, Study Says,” New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/25/science/gene-tests-identify-breast-cancer-patients-who-can-skip-chemotherapy-study-says.html?_r=0, August 2016

⁴“Under-Utilization of Gene Expression Profiling For Early Stage Breast Cancer in California,” National Center for Biotechnology Information, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4871729/, April 2016