Improved breast cancer test could be 'holy grail' to help predict best treatments
A TEST that can predict how long women with breast cancer may live and which treatments may work could be available in two years.
Some doctors already use a formula called the Nottingham Prognostic Index, developed more than 30 years ago, to give them an idea of a patient’s outlook.
This is based on the size of the cancer, if it has spread and how advanced the disease is.
But this has now been improved to create the Nottingham Prognostic Index Plus.
Baroness Morgan, of Breast Cancer Campaign, said: “This test could be a step towards making the holy grail of personalised medicine a reality.”
Professor Ian Ellis, of Nottingham University, said by using 10 “biomarkers” and other information, patients’ cancer could be put into more specific risk classes for “better targeting of therapies, resulting in improved outcomes with reduced costs and less anxiety for the patient”.
The test, described in the British Journal of Cancer, was developed using more than 1,000 breast cancer samples.