Health

Breast cancer test may predict risk of recurrence

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - An experimental test for breast cancer was able to predict with unprecedented precision which patients, among hundreds in a study, had a higher risk that the cancer would return after surgery, researchers announced Thursday.

The test, from Genomic Health, could prove helpful to many patients with early breast cancer who must make difficult decisions about further treatment. Those with a low risk of cancer recurrence might decide to forego the horrors of chemotherapy, the powerful chemical treatments that often cause severe nausea, hair loss and other problems. Those with a high risk would have an extra reason to go ahead.

At least one cancer specialist applauded the results of the first large-scale study of the new tumor test and said she wished it were immediately available to help plan treatment for her patients.

"It's the most important diagnostic in breast cancer for risk prediction I think I've ever seen," said Dr. Melody Cobleigh, director of the comprehensive breast cancer center at Rush Medical College in Chicago.

But others were more skeptical, calling for further studies that could show whether or not the tumor assay, which is bound to be costly, actually saves lives.

"This still doesn't answer the complete question," said Dr. Judith Luce, director of oncology services at San Francisco General Hospital. She said she wanted to see evidence that decisions based on the test "show patients do better." Such a study could take five years or more.

The genetic test was developed by analyzing tumor samples from nearly 700 women involved in a 1980s cancer study. The findings were used to create a point system to express chances of recurrence within 10 years.

FORT WORTH, Texas - As a nasty flu outbreak spreads across the country, schools are reporting more empty seats as parents keep children at home to recuperate or to protect them.

Flu is blamed for the deaths of at least five children in Colorado, three in Texas and one each in Oklahoma and New Mexico.

Children are susceptible because their bodies have not been exposed to the virus that infects the nose, throat and lungs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Children's Medical Center Dallas has seen more than 500 children with flu since October.

Low to moderate drinking may cause a loss of brain tissue in middle-age people, a study found. The researchers also found that such alcohol consumption does not lower the risk of a stroke - contradicting findings from previous studies.

"I think this is an interesting study because people talk about the beneficial effects of alcohol intake on cardiovascular disease and they try to extend that to stroke," said the study's lead researcher, Dr. Jingzhong Ding, a research associate at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "Some studies find beneficial effects, but ours didn't."

Heavy drinking is known to raise the risk of both brain atrophy and stroke, but findings on low to moderate drinking have varied.

The new study appears in today's issue of the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

The study evaluated 1,909 patients, ages 55 and older who were participants in a study on the buildup of plaque in the arteries.

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