Breast cancer treatment has improved a lot in the last decade with more understanding and treatment options available, leading to a high cure rate in early stages. There are many types of treatments like chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, targeted therapies, etc. The challenge is to pick the best treatment for a patient, considering effectiveness and side effects.
Prof. Tamar Peretz from Hadassah Medical Center says treatments are chosen based on the cancer subtype, literature, clinical trials, and personal experience. But it’s often hard to predict which treatment is best for an individual.
Curesponse, an oncology company, offers a test called cResponse™ that checks how a patient’s breast tumor responds to different treatments. The test uses a sample of the tumor and shows results in about two weeks. It’s over 90% accurate and is covered by some health insurance in Israel.
The test is valuable because standard genomic sequencing can’t always predict how a patient will respond to treatment, especially when multiple mutations are present.
Curesponse’s technology, developed from Prof. Ravid Straussman’s research, lets the tumor tissue survive in the lab so it can be tested with different drugs. This helps find the most effective treatment for a patient.
The cResponse™ test is also paired with rapid genomic sequencing to find genetic mutations for targeted therapies. These can be combined with other treatments.
Prof. Peretz notes that choosing the right treatment is critical at different disease stages, such as before surgery to reduce a tumor’s size or after surgery to prevent recurrence. The test can guide the selection of treatments with minimal side effects.
For advanced cancer that has spread, the test helps find the most effective treatment with the least side effects, like in patients who have other health issues or have had previous treatments that affect their bone marrow.
Overall, the cResponse™ test assists in making informed decisions on the best treatment for individual breast cancer patients, tailored to their specific condition and the tumor’s characteristics.
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