Test may help rule out need for chemotherapy in early breast cancer Many women with early-stage breast cancer might be spared unnecessary chemotherapy if doctors check their tumors for proteins that help reveal whether the disease will spread. Testing for these proteins is already becoming routine in Europe, but U.S. doctors say they need more evidence that the approach actually works. About 175,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States this year. Most will have small tumors that have not yet spread to the lymph nodes. About 70 percent of these women can be cured with surgery and radiation alone. However, cancer will come back in the other 30 percent. Giving chemotherapy to these women can reduce this risk by about one-third. The problem for doctors is trying to identify this minority who need chemotherapy. On Monday, at a meeting in San Francisco of the American Association for Cancer Research, Dr. Anita Prechtl of Technical University in Munich described the use of two proteins in tumors that might help reveal their likelihood of coming back. The proteins are uPA -- short for urokinase-type plasminogen activator -- and its natural inhibitor, known as PAI-1. About 45 percent of breast cancer patients have high levels of these proteins. They have a higher risk of cancer spread, even though their lymph nodes seem free of cancer. Ann's NOTE: I first heard about this at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Conference. How much evidence is enough? I think it would be a GREAT advance if most of us were not told that chemo was needed (since it is not needed by most of us). Thanks to AP for this story. Breast Cancer Res Treat, 4/01 Assoc Press story, 10/01 Presented at Euro Fed of Cancer Societies Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.