Hyderabad: TAILORx, a treatment which gives an idea about whether a breast cancer patient needs chemotherapy or not, doesn’t appear to be affordable in India as it costs Rs 2.75 lakh.
The Trial Assigning Individualised Options for Treatment (TAILORx) is an Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score Test, which gives scores for the cancer.
These scores allow doctors to determine whether chemotherapy is needed or not.
According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, clinical trials carried out in 10,273 women found that as many as 70 per cent of the women do not require chemotherapy as they scored low in the test.
Dr P.S. Dattatreya, senior consultant medical oncologist at Omega Hospitals, explained, “This is a brilliant study with well-represented patients. The only drawback is that the test costs Rs 2.75 lakh. High risk patients who will benefit from chemotherapy can be identified, but how many will be able to take this test?”
In early stages, hormonal therapy with fewer side effects is found to cure breast cancer patients but they were being put through chemotherapy as per protocol.
