Researchers said they have discovered a way to classify the different types of breast cancer tumors. They said they could put the tumors into 10 different categories that range from the very treatable to the extremely aggressive. This is a big step forward in the path to precisely targeting the correct treatments for each patient.
The new set of categories that were described this week in the study should be able to aid scientists in devising fresh new treatments. It could also help to spare a number of women the pain and risk of unnecessary and toxic treatments.
The idea is that cancers of one category will require on treatment and cancers of another will require a different treatment. Carlos Caldas a Cambridge University breast cancer geneticist said that by categorizing tumors in women it might mean that chemotherapy, the traditional treatment, is not warranted. He said many women have been over treated and we must spare them of that in the future.
The study is one of many that are expected over the next few months that will utilize genetic clues in tumors in the breast to help realign the categories of the disease.
Often times, doctors say that breast cancer is not just one single disease but also a number of them. In an alarming high number of cases, doctors cannot explain the reason why one person will respond well to a treatment, while another person will not, even when they both might have a tumor with the same receptor.
