Lymph Cells May Hold Clue to Breast Cancer Spread
16th Sep 2005, 13:02 GMT
Examining the lymph cells in lymph nodes may present a better way to predict if breast cancer has spread and will be likely to recur. Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine found that women with breast cancer whose lymph nodes had a normal immune cell balance had an 85 to 90 percent chance of being disease-free after five years. The group with an "unfavorable" immune profile had less than a 15 percent chance. The findings are published in the current issue of the journal Public Library of Science-Medicine. The researchers hope to develop a simple test that could help determine which women could benefit from more aggressive therapy, and which could be spared undergoing costly and toxic treatments unnecessarily. Full text article available here. Read Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
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