Over 90% of women who get diagnosed with breast cancer today will survive. Those are remarkable odds, and they’re possible because of remarkable advancements in the field. Every major advancement in cancer research has come from a clinical trial. And there’s currently some really exciting breast cancer clinical trials going on.
“It’s always important if patients are interested in the latest treatments that they say to their doctors, are there any clinical trials that may be applicable to me?” said SurvivorNet’s medical advisor Dr. Elizabeth Comen, in an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show Thursday morning. “One of the things that we know is that only 3 to 5% of patients participate in clinical trials, and yet, these are where the latest advancements are going to come out.”
Read MoreThere’s also been some major advancements when it comes to deciding on treatment in the past year alone. A study, called the TAILORx trial, used the Oncotype DX test to predict which women will benefit from chemotherapy, and concluded that most women with the most common type of breast cancer don’t need chemotherapy. The study focused on breast cancer that has not spread into the lymph nodes and is hormone receptor-positive. This discovery will likely change treatment for something like 100,000 women.
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