TAIPEI, Taiwan, April 3 (UPI) -- Taiwan and U.S. researchers have developed a new prediction model to help physicians determine the chance of recurrence in high-risk breast cancer patients.
The model is the result of a joint effort by doctors from Taiwan and the United States who set out to develop a method superior to the current benchmark of looking at tumor size and lymph nodes to predict the odds of recurrence.
The new method takes into account five different risk factors in determining the chance of recurrence in high-risk patients and approximating the benefits of radiation therapy, said a study appearing in the April issue of the International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics.
"This prediction model is important because identifying higher risk patients sooner will allow doctors to more aggressively treat those cancers, in the hopes of giving patients a higher chance for a cure," said Dr. Skye Hongiun Cheng of Taiwan, lead author of the study.
