Technology and research has once again made a giant breakthrough and good news regarding breast cancer. According to CBS Los Angeles, study has shown that gene tests can be used to determine high or low risk breast cancer instead of using chemotherapy.
To those who do not know what chemotherapy is, it is a practice that uses medicine to keep the cancer cells from quickly growing to the point where there are many cancerous cells. This is a great way to treat cancer cells, but there are actually many side effects that may come with chemotherapy. Chemotherapy does eliminate many cancer cells, but it may also target healthy cells as well. This may be a risk towards a cancer patient’s health.
The gene tests are a great alternative to find out whether or not patients need chemotherapy. Because chemotherapy is very costly, a low risk patient would rather not want to participate in chemotherapy if they find out through the gene test that they do not need it. Forging this process also allows the patient to avoid the dangers of chemotherapy. The side effects of chemotherapy can also include a decrease in both red and white blood count, since chemotherapy can affect the bone marrow. As a result, a chemotherapy patient may have a worsened immune system and defense against infections. This is only a small part of the side effects; there are still many other side effects that cause other body systems to act abnormally.
So, from all this information about chemotherapy’s negative effects makes the new gene test sound great. The gene test can help you decide for you financially and healthily whether or not chemotherapy is the right thing for you. It would be a waste to dump your money and health on something that you do not need just because cancer might be a devastation to your future health. It is important that we analyze our options and take the right path for our own good. Diving straight into chemotherapy without question is not the way to go. I noticed that cancer is deemed one of the most devastating – I do agree! It is definitely something that we should take seriously. However, chemotherapy might not necessarily help you if you are a low risk patient. Studies show that low risk patients that do not take chemotherapy treatment have about the same survival rate as low risk patients that do take chemotherapy treatment. So we should definitely look at all our options and decide from there to figure out whether you want to do it or not. Just make sure to keep in mind that chemotherapy may take a toll on your finances and health.
