Breast Cancer Research

In 1955, the National Cancer Institute began organizing oncologists into regional study groups to address specific interests that NCI then funded. One of those was the Southwest Oncology Group, founded in Houston, and known today as SWOG, which brings together some 5,000 physicians. Recently, SWOG launched a study to see if breast cancer patients with low Oncotype DX scores (meaning a higher risk for recurrence) ought to undergo chemotherapy.  According to the study leader, “it will mean that we know more precisely how to use a genomic-based test to spare thousands of women whose breast cancer has spread to as many as three lymph nodes the grueling side effects and staggering costs of chemotherapy they don’t need.”   MORE

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