Breast cancer gene test could be available on NHS 'in months'

A genetic test to help breast cancer patients get the best treatment could be available on the NHS within months.
Its makers say it could spare some women from unnecessary post-surgery chemotherapy while ensuring others have the lifesaving course of drugs.
The Oncotype DX test reads the genes behind the most common form of breast cancer to work out the chances of the disease coming back following the removal of tumours.
It also gives guidance on whether gruelling chemotherapy will help defeat the disease.
The £2,600 procedure, which is routinely used in America, is being evaluated for the NHS, with a decision due by next May.
It works on oestrogen-positive, node-negative breast cancer, which accounts for around half of the 48,000 cases of the disease diagnosed each year.
After a woman has had surgery, a tissue sample is flown to the laboratory of makers Genomic Health for scientists to assess the activity levels of 21 genes related to the growth and spread of the disease.
This provides a read-out of the chances of the cancer returning within a decade.
Doctors currently assess factors such as tumour size before deciding which women should be given chemotherapy. 

Usually, around half of patients in the early stages of the most common form of breast cancer will be given the drugs, in six sessions spread over six months.
But in a trial of the test at Llanelli’s Prince Philip Hospital, 21 per cent of women who would normally have had chemotherapy were spared it.
Another 8 per cent were judged to be in need of the treatment after conventional tests failed to pick up how dangerous their tumours were.
Simon Holt, the surgeon who led the trial, said: ‘Oncotype DX changed the decision in around 30 per cent of cases. That’s big.
‘The ones we are most interested in are those who wouldn’t have received chemotherapy conventionally but turned out to need it.
They are the ones who were really likely to run into problems later on. Recurrent breast cancer is really difficult to treat.’
A similar test is also available for bowel cancer.