2024-04-19 11:50:00
A quarter of women with an aggressive form of breast cancer (triple negative) have an immune system strong enough to fight the tumor. Chemotherapy would therefore be unnecessary, according to a study led by Dr. Roberto Salgado, affiliated with the ZAS hospital in Antwerp.
Dr. Salgado’s study, published in the medical journal “Journal of the American Medical Association”, concerns triple negative breast cancer, an often more aggressive form characterized by the absence of receptors for estrogen, progesterone and HER2 protein. The research team collected data from nearly 2,000 women around the world, followed for an average of 18 years.
It appears that “if their immune system has sufficient anti-cancer cells, women with triple-negative breast cancer detected at an early stage have a high chance of survival and a low risk of recurrence, even without chemotherapy”, the study concludes. This will apply to 25% of patients suffering from this type of tumour.
About one in seven women with breast cancer has the triple negative form. This type of cancer does not respond to hormonal drugs, which makes it more difficult to treat. Most patients with this type of tumor are therefore referred early on for chemotherapy, which often causes serious side effects.
At the moment, the number of immune cells is not taken into account when deciding whether the patient needs chemotherapy. Instead, doctors rely on the size of the tumor and whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes.
A test that checks whether the woman has tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) can determine whether chemotherapy is necessary.
“The results (of the study, editor’s note) may serve as a recommendation to consider TILs in breast cancer pathology reports,” says Dr. Salgado. “A simple check can better inform doctors and their patients about treatment options. It does not require expensive tests.”
The team will now set about verifying how TILs can be used as a final stone to determine the need for chemotherapy.
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