Skip chemo? That could come soon for more patients

By Kim Dixon

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Doctors are closer to predicting which cancer patients can skip chemotherapy and avoid the brutal side effects of that staple of cancer care, doctors at a major medical meeting said on Tuesday.

The move toward helping patients avoid chemotherapy -- and perhaps the nausea, hair loss and weakened immune system that are its hallmarks -- is a positive side effect of the individualization of cancer treatment, doctors at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting said.

"Chemotherapy is clearly effective for patients -- on average. But can it be spared?" Dr. Aron Goldhirsch, of the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, said at a panel at the meeting, which wrapped up here.

Women patients with high levels of estrogen receptors -- cancer cells containing special proteins that bind to the hormone estrogen -- are among the patient subsets that may not benefit from chemotherapy for breast cancer, experts said.

More research is needed to determine the best regimes and to define the particular subgroups, said Dr. Kathy Albain, director of the breast clinical research program at Loyola University Medical Center in Illinois.

But it is coming, probably in a few years, she said.

"We have entered the tailored therapy era," Albain said.

Breast cancer is in the forefront in this area, but experts said others are following, including lung cancer which is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the world.