BARCELONA – Patients with breast cancer who have had surgery improve their chances of survival afterwards by up to 30 percent if they have chemotherapy afterwards, according to an international study published Tuesday.

Dr Agustí Barnadas, head of oncology at Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona, said tests involved 1,491 women in 112 hospitals in  20 countries.

Women were studied for 55 months and researchers found that independent of the state of their hormonal receptors, they were better if they were treated with a new drug which reacted against oestrogen in their bodies.

Breast cancer is the most common form of the disease in women, along with skin cancer.

It is also thought to the second biggest cause of death among women, after lung cancer.

However, for women between the ages of 40 and 59, breast cancer is thought to be the principal cause of death.

In Spain there are 17,000 new cases each year with 7,000 deaths. Women have a risk of between 7 and 11 percent of developing breast cancer. It affects between every 9–14 women.
 
Dr Barnadas said that women who took part in  the study were in two groups.

One group was of women who were given  conventional drugs and a new substance and the other was made up of  women  who had a 28 percent greater chance to survive free of cancer after being treated with a new active start and chemotherapy.
 

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]
                                                   Subject: Spanish news