Vigyan India.com (विज्ञान इंडिया डाट कॉम )

Widely hailed as the next frontier in medical advances, the promise of individualized medicine is becoming a reality thanks to progress in understanding the molecular basis of diseases such as breast cancer. Scientists can now develop treatments that are tailored to individual genetic profiles, as well as tests to predict how a patient will respond to existing therapies. Today, some women with early-stage breast cancer and their physicians can make more informed treatment decisions with the Oncotype DX Breast Cancer Assay. This service provides quantitative information about genes from a woman’s individual tumor to generate a Recurrence Score between zero and 100, indicating whether she is at high, intermediate or low risk for her cancer returning after treatment. Oncotype DX is intended for patients with node-negative, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer who are likely to be treated with hormonal therapy. Approximately half of the 230,000 patients diagnosed with breast cancer i