THOUSANDS of women with breast cancer could be spared chemotherapy if they were offered gene tests which show whether their disease is likely to spread, a major trial has found.
The British study suggests that up to 5,000 women a year could avoid the toxic treatment, which can cause nausea and fatigue, through wider use of genetic risk profiling.
Currently a test called Oncotype DX is offered to around 9,000 patients a year by the NHS when disease has not spread to the lymph nodes.