Page 3 - Mark Fleury News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

A recent survey found that only 3% of U.S. oncologists routinely order the tests before dosing patients.

Patients with variants in the DPYD gene have an increased risk of severe toxicity and death from fluoropyrimidine chemotherapy, but many US cancer patients are not being tested for DPYD variants. Fluoropyrimidine chemotherapy kills more than 275,000 US cancer patients each year, but routine genetic testing could change that.

The chemotherapy drug 5-FU can be toxic to some people with cancer. A quick, cheap test can show if chemo is safe for a patient, but few doctors order it.

One January morning in 2021, Carol Rosen took a standard treatment for metastatic breast cancer. Three gruesome weeks later, she died in excruciating pain from the very drug meant to prolong her life. Rosen, a 70-year-old retired schoolteacher, passed her final days in anguish, enduring severe diarrhea and nausea and terrible sores in her mouth

One January morning in 2021, Carol Rosen took a standard treatment for metastatic breast cancer. Three gruesome weeks later, she died in excruciating pain from the very drug meant to prolong her life.