In women with metastatic breast cancer, the number of circulating tumor cells before treatment is a strong predictor of overall and progression-free survival, The authors believe such testing could help clinicians determine the best chemotherapy regimen, the authors note. As reported in The New England Journal of Medicine for August 19, the researchers used a newly developed test called CellSearch to look for tumor cells in blood samples obtained from 177 patients before and after starting a new line of chemotherapy. The researchers found that a tumor cell threshold of 5 cells per 7.5 mL of blood was useful in predicting survival. Patients with pretreatment levels at or above this threshold had median progression-free and overall survival periods of 2.7 and 10.1 months, respectively. In contrast, the corresponding survival periods for patients with levels below this threshold were much higher, at 7.0 and >18 months (p < 0.001 for both). The authors believe such testing could help clinicians determine the best chemotherapy regimen. The test has already been approved by FDA. Source: N Engl J Med 2004;351:781-791,824-826 Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.