One in three breast cancer patients can be spared debilitating chemotherapy by a prognostic molecular test that identifies groups of genes governing metastatic dissemination, a group of Cape Town oncologists say.
The activity of groups of genes governing the process of metastasis is distilled into ‘transcriptional profiles’. Examples of these include the MammaPrint test of The Netherlands Cancer Institute, the Oncotype Dx test (USA) and the Rotterdam Profile (University of Rotterdam).