Health briefing

New breast cancer test available from this week

A NEW breast cancer test will be made available from this week by the Republic’s eight breast cancer treatment centres, the national cancer control programme (NCCP) has announced.

The diagnostic test, Oncotype DX, helps determine which women with breast cancer will benefit most from chemotherapy. It also predicts the likelihood of breast cancer recurrence when used in conjunction with clinical factors such as the size of the tumour and its grade of severity.

Used in patients with a certain type of early stage breast cancer, the genomic test provides a risk score that helps determine whether a woman should undergo chemotherapy in addition to hormone therapy. Research has shown that up to 30 per cent of women who until now would have received chemotherapy are identified by the test as being at low-risk of recurrence. They will now be spared the toxicity and long-term side effects of treatment.

The NCCP expects about 300 women annually to undergo the test, with about 100 women subsequently excluding chemotherapy from their treatment plan.

The programme’s technology review committee recommended that it be made available under strict eligibility criteria.

There had been concern the test would be considered too expensive following an initial assessment of cost effectiveness carried out by the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics (NCPE).

However, according to NCCP director Susan O’Reilly, “This particular test is clinically beneficial and represents value for money.”

Chocolate lovers sought for penance

LOOKING FOR a healthy excuse to eat dark chocolate? Look no further. Researchers at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust are recruiting volunteers to take part in a study investigating if a high fruit and vegetable diet incorporating dark chocolate and berries can reduce the risk of developing heart disease. If you like dark chocolate, are aged 40-65, have high blood pressure but no history of diabetes, Prof Pascal McKeown and his research team at Queens University would like to hear from you. Contact Dr Rebecca Noad on tel: 048- 90633108.

Call for patients with retinal degeneration

PATIENTS who have inherited forms of retinal degeneration are being asked to come forward for a national register and, in some cases, genetic profiling of the conditions. Several potential therapies are emerging, such as gene therapy, new medications and retinal implants, which could help to tackle inherited forms of retinal disease, the annual general meeting of patient charity Fighting Blindness heard in Dublin on Saturday.

But in order to prepare for potential future therapies, we need to know more specifically about the types of retinal degeneration among patients here, said consultant ophthalmologist Dr David Keegan. “We have more than 1,600 patients with a vague diagnosis of inherited retinal degeneration and that’s not good enough for launching many targeted therapies,” he said. “We need to know who specifically has what inherited retinal condition out there.”

The plan is to set up a centralised, national register of inherited retinal degenerative conditions, including retinitis pigmentosa. The initiative is calling for patients with onset of sight loss before the age of 10, said Dr Keegan, chairman of the ophthalmology division at the Dublin Centre for Clinical Research, which is funded through the Health Research Board and Wellcome Trust. A related project seeks to profile DNA samples from patients with inherited retinal conditions in order to identify the exact mutations that are causing the problem in most of the patients, said Prof Jane Farrar from Trinity College Dublin at the Fighting Blindness meeting. For details, e-mail research@fightingblindness.ie