Hi there... haven’t been on this site for a bit but I want to reply to you. I had a ‘straightforward’ breast cancer as in estrogen and no lymph nodes or vascular involvement. If I had been NHS I would not have had this test but I was private - so did. I got a score of 30. Was a big shock as was told I wouldn’t need chemo. For post meno it’s a score from 26 down that doesn’t need it but above they recommend it. It’s a grey area. Major one. They’ve done trials up to the 26 score (TailorX) but not for the intermediate of 26 to 30. I had an arrogant awful male oncologist who I changed. My husband and I embarked on major research. I had an instinct I didn’t need chemo... it’s a dangerous treatment and not to be done unless really needed. No doctor could tell me by how much my risk would go down. I had a 19pc chance of recurrence over 9 years so 81pc of not according to my result. Got utterly bogged down by stats and tbh I nearly lost my mind!! All I wanted to know was by how much my score went down If I did chemo. If it took it down to 10 pc risk I would do the treatment. Not one doctor could even give me an idea of that figure. My new onco told us to call Genomic Health who do this test. They said - sorry we don’t have data in that score! It’s intermediate. In the end I opted to do it... then in the nick of time we discovered proper recent data trial to show that me having chemo gave a 1.2pc difference of not. A cancer research pal said it was giving a fiver to get one back. The test is about gene expression. It is useful but certainly the pathology cannot be ignored. With the new data I felt confident not doing chemo, but had been through utter hell! When I told doc finally I wasn’t doing it she said, ‘Good, but we have to recommend it ‘. Says it all. If I had to go again I wouldn’t have had test and wouldn’t be as anxious as I am now - but then lots of women are not in grey area. I spoke to many American women who’ve had the test around much longer and many who had scores of 30 or more still said no to chemo as it has to take the rest of it into consideration. . As one woman told me her colleague had a very low score of 4 - yet her breast cancer recurred. Yet this woman had a score of 35 and had not. It’s a great addition to the decision process but there is a big grey area!!! This was hard for me to write all this as it was a year ago this month all this was going on... have my first year screening scan on Monday and am terrified - nothing to do with not having the chemo as I know that my decision was right for me and I just can’t go there anymore! I am so glad I went deep into research as the oncos really did not know. I was given three different percentages by three different doctors and they wondered why I was confused. It’s all just a shock and bloody scary really!!! But life continues and we do too. Wishing you much luck and very best wishes - and hope this convoluted tale of woe has helped!!!
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