Study gives hope to those with breast cancer that chemotherapy is not needed

A new study has found that women with early-stage breast cancer probably don’t need chemotherapy after they have surgery.

The study was done on over 9,000 women, who were just diagnosed with the disease. It found, especially for women whose cancer hadn’t spread, that they didn’t need that severe of treatment.

Dr. Asad Javed with Mayo Health System in La Crosse says it’s a major breakthrough. He expects Mayo to implement that strategy immediately.

“It’s a very strong study,” he said. “This certainly is practice changing.

“You’re saving them from very toxic chemotherapy options, because there are some short-term side effects, which certainly effect the quality of life of the patient but then they’re are long-term effects, too, damage to the heart and incidents of leiukemia.”

A study suggests that those with an intermediate risk of breast cancer returning might not need chemotherapy. The study found those who had an intermediate risk of the cancer returning had similar outcomes after their initial surgery regardless of chemo.

Javed says there was a large group of patients, where they had to discuss the option of chemo, because they didn’t have strong data on whether it was needed.