Test to tell if breast cancer drug works

London: Scientists are developing a test to tell far more quickly whether the most commonly used chemotherapy drug will benefit breast cancer patients.

It could identify tens of thousands of women who will only suffer debilitating side effects from using anthracycline chemotherapy, rather than beat the disease.

The treatment is used for many of the 46,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK each year.

But it only helps around one in four users.

However, the patients who do not benefit only find out they are unsuited to the treatment after a three-month course.

The new test means patients could learn within 24 hours whether or not anthracycline will help them.

It is being developed at the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre at the Institute of Cancer Research, where a team tested 68 breast cancer patients.

Researchers looked at the protein RAD51, which is involved in DNA repair.

They found that if it did not work in cancer cells, patients were likely to respond to anthracycline.

Complete response

Many of these patients had a complete response, with the tumour disappearing from the breast.

But if the DNA repair process was working in the tumour, they would probably not respond to treatment.

This is the first time this mechanism has been shown in a clinical setting and could have important implications for patients.