iLife introduces gene test for breast cancer risk

Genetics and genomics company iLife Discoveries has introduced a new gene test in India to evaluate breast cancer recurrence risks.

The test, MammaPrint & Blueprint, is able to analyse molecular sub-types of the cancer, risk of recurrence of early stage cancer, thereby enabling medical oncologists to take informed decisions on the course of treatment, a company release said.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Anand Gupta, Founder & CMD, iLife Discoveries, said: “Not all patients need to go through the difficult and challenging chemotherapy after a surgical procedure… However, in the absence of reliable mechanisms to provide efficient insight into the cancer and the possibility of its recurrence, most oncologists take recourse to the tried and tested chemotherapy mechanism.” He claimed this test can help doctors reduce the use of unnecessary chemotherapy.

Ramesh Sarin, Senior Consultant, Surgical Oncology, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Delhi, said: “Until now, we did not have any test to distinguish women in which cancer would spread from the women in whom it would not. But now, we have an FDA approved 70 gene Mammaprint test, by which we can predict the behaviour of tumour by looking at its genomic profiling and manage the patient accordingly.” Business Line