Mumbai: An Indian artificial intelligence (AI)-based test can help doctors identify which patients with early-stage breast cancer may avoid chemotherapy, according to Dr Manjiri Bakre, Founder, OncoStem Diagnostics.
In an interaction with ETHealthworld, Dr Bakre said between 90 and 95 per cent of early-stage breast cancer patients in India receive chemotherapy. This is largely because prognostic tests that help identify patients who may not need it remain costly or are not widely known.
Following surgery for early-stage breast cancer, chemotherapy is often recommended to reduce the risk of recurrence. However, the need for chemotherapy varies depending on the tumor’s characteristics and the individual patient’s risk of recurrence.
“Each cancer is as unique as the person, and not every cancer is aggressive. But prognostic tests from the US and Europe are prohibitively expensive and not well validated on Indian patients, and there is little awareness that made-in-India tests exist. Because of this lack of testing and awareness, patients are treated with chemotherapy even in early stages,” Dr Bakre said.
OncoStem’s CanAssist Breast test is designed for patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative early-stage breast cancer. It helps doctors assess the risk of recurrence and determine whether chemotherapy may be beneficial.
The test is performed on tumour tissue removed during surgery. It measures five protein biomarkers and combines the results with clinical parameters, including tumour size, grade and lymph node status, using an AI-based algorithm to generate a recurrence risk score on a scale of 1 to 100.
According to Dr Bakre, a score below 15.5 indicates a low risk of recurrence within five years of diagnosis. Depending on the patient’s overall clinical profile, such patients may be managed with radiation therapy and daily hormone therapy tablets without chemotherapy.
The test, currently marketed by Zydus Lifesciences, is available to patients across India. All testing is carried out at OncoStem’s central laboratory in Bengaluru.
To improve access and reduce delays associated with sample logistics, OncoStem has also developed a kit-based version that would enable hospital-based pathology laboratories to conduct the test in-house, Dr Bakre said.
The kit is currently under review by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). The company expects to receive its manufacturing licence by the end of this year or early next year, she added.
