The new test can be used in patients who are in the early stages of the disease and whose surgeons have removed tumors from the breast or lymph nodes. Analysis of the tumor then helps in determining the next treatment, which so far is often chemotherapy. “For some patients, doctors are unsure whether to use chemotherapy and whether it will be beneficial. But to be sure, they also recommend it to women in this gray zone. However, they are often treated unnecessarily, which is almost to the detriment of the patient,explains Drbně, head of MOÚ’s Comprehensive Oncology Treatment Clinic Katarina Petraková.

75,000 Czech women get breast cancer every year. Thanks to the new method, some patients from the gray zone can avoid the side effects of demanding treatment, which include nausea, tingling in the legs, or hair loss. Instead of chemotherapy, based on gene analysis of tumor cells, doctors prescribe what is called hormone therapy.

Using genomic testing, doctors say, fifty to sixty percent of patients with tumors detected early can avoid chemotherapy. The MamaPrint test, which costs seventy-four thousand crowns, will have to be reimbursed by the health insurance company from July, following the recommendations of the medical team.

The test has been used by oncologists in Yellow Hill since last year, but until now the collected samples still need to be sent overseas. The Czech Republic is only the third country in Europe to have received manufacturer certification for MamaPrint. Genome testing required complex laboratory procedures, for which MOÚ had to purchase two new instruments. “Now we will have more control over the sample and the inspection itself. This will make the whole process easier and faster.” said the head of the Department of Pathology MOI Pavel Fabian.