Number of Cancer Cells in the Bloodstream Offers Treatment Clues for Women With Metastatic Breast Cancer
Counting the number of tumor cells that have broken away from a tumor and are circulating in the blood can help doctors choose between chemotherapy and endocrine therapy for patients with metastatic breast cancer, according to a study presented at the recent San Antonio Breast Cancer SymposiumCurrently, doctors tend to use all available endocrine therapies, such as the drug tamoxifen, before switching to chemotherapy to treat metastatic breast cancer, said study author François-Clément Bidard, MD, PhD, a professor of medical oncology at Institut Curie and Versailles Saint-Quentin University in Paris, at a press conference.Circulating tumor cell count, or CTC as it’s also known, has been extensively studied for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer in the past two decades to see whether it can help fine-tune treatment, Dr. Bidard said.In study presented at…