A research team from the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) found that young women with breast cancer may not benefit from chemotherapy.
In Europe, around 10 percent of breast cancer diagnoses are given to women under the age of 40. Those who are given chemotherapy in addition to surgery and radiotherapy may not be benefiting from it. This is especially true if their cancer is hormone dependent and the tumors respond to the hormone estrogen. Two thirds of breast cancers are known as estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and they contain cells that have high levels of estrogen receptors. Another type of tumor is estrogen receptor negative (ER -). These grow more aggressively than positive ones but are not dependent on estrogen.
The research team looked at women from four trials to study the affect of chemotherapy and found that women with the less aggressive ER+ did not survive in greater numbers than the ER – group.
The difference in survival rates of the two groups was just 5 percent and the higher survival rate was in the ER – group, indicating that chemotherapy had no effect on the ER+ patients. In fact, over 25 percent had died seven years after the treatment.
Chemotherapy itself has numerous side-effects and can even cause death in some patients.
"Developing breast cancer at a young age is very worrying in terms of survival," explained lead researcher Dr J van der Hage. "But some young women may be undergoing not only unpleasant but also unnecessary chemotherapy, which can be avoided. Adjuvant chemotherapy is a well established, but ineffective treatment in ER+ breast cancer patients aged 40 years or less. Hormone responsiveness is the key to tailoring therapy in the future fight against this disease for young women.”
Young patients with breast cancer are currently advised to undergo removal of the tumors and sometimes the breasts, in addition to chemotherapy treatment, but this research shows that the advice may be wrong. Chemotherapy devastates the immune system and can cause multi-system complications, all of which are extremely uncomfortable for the recipient. Unless a clear benefit can be shown, it may not be worth the risks.
Source: Efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy according to hormone receptor status in young breast cancer patients, Jos A. van der Hage, Sven J.S.D. Mieog, Marc J. van de Vijver and Cornelis J.H. van de Velde, Breast Cancer Research.
Joanna is a freelance health writer for The Mother magazine and Suite 101 with a column on infertility, http://infertility.suite101.com/. She is author of the book, 'Breast Milk: A Natural Immunisation,' and co-author of an educational resource on disabled parenting, in addition to running a charity for people damaged by vaccines or medical mistakes.