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SINGAPORE – About 90 breast cancer patients may have received unnecessary treatments since 2012 due to inaccurate test results.
Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH), which announced this on Friday (December 11), also estimated that 180 patients may have obtained incorrect test results.
Find out more about the test and the related type of breast cancer below.
What is the HER2 test?
The test that returned inaccurate results in 180 women is used to determine how aggressive a patient’s breast cancer can be, so that doctors can offer the appropriate treatment.
It checks for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) proteins, which normally regulate the healthy growth of breast tissue.
The test works by introducing antibodies labeled with a color dye into a sample of breast tissue. These adhere to HER2 proteins, which appear as a spot when a doctor looks at the sample under a microscope.
The intensity of the stain determines whether the result is positive or negative.
The gene that makes the protein can cause uncontrolled tissue growth if it doesn’t work properly.
If a breast cancer patient is HER2 positive, it means that she is likely to have a more aggressive tumor than HER2 negative patients.
It will likely respond poorly to certain treatments such as standard chemotherapy or hormone therapy. The patient may be considered for specific HER2 treatments, such as the drug Trastuzumab, which works by binding to HER2 receptors on cells in breast tissue to prevent them from receiving growth signals.
The drug can cause side effects such as diarrhea, chills, and fever. It can also cause heart problems in about 3 to 4 percent of patients.
What are HER2 positive breast cancers?
Breast cancer is a disease that involves abnormal cell growth in the breast, which can spread to other parts of the body and cause health problems.
It is the most common type of cancer in women internationally. In Singapore, breast cancer accounts for almost 30 percent of cancers in women.
Breast cancers can have different characteristics that require different treatments, depending on the presence or absence of certain receptors.
The most common form involves hormone receptors such as estrogen receptors and progesterone receptors.
About 70 percent of breast cancers are positive for one or both of these receptors, which means that the patient’s hormones play a role in the development of the cancer.
Hormone receptor-positive breast cancers tend to be less aggressive and grow more slowly. These patients are likely to have better long-term results. Treatment will generally include hormone therapy drugs such as tamoxifen, which blocks estrogen receptors in breast tissue.
HER2-positive breast cancers, or those involving human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) protein, are less common, affecting 15% to 20% of patients.
This type of breast cancer occurs when the HER2 protein, which normally regulates the healthy growth of breast tissue, is overproduced. It tends to be more aggressive compared to hormone receptor-positive cancers.
These patients may be prescribed drugs that block HER2 receptors.
Less common are what are known as triple negative breast cancers, which do not have estrogen, progesterone, or HER2 receptors.
These cancers, seen in about 15 percent of patients, are particularly aggressive and are associated with higher rates of relapse and lower survival rates. Treatments usually include surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.
Misidentified cancers could result in insufficient or unnecessary treatment.
A false positive could lead to a patient receiving treatment that she did not need, while experiencing the side effects of the medication or procedure she was given.
Meanwhile, a false negative could mean that treatment that you would otherwise have benefited from was missed.
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