Gene test that can show if cancer drugs will cure you

London - For years, cancer doctors have known that many patients aren't helped by the drugs they're given. For instance, only 20 per cent of those with advanced lung cancer will benefit from certain drugs.

Even among those receiving a very effective drug such as tamoxifen for breast cancer, 30 per cent don't respond.

The trouble is that, until now, there hasn't been any reliable way of working out who will do best on which treatments. But that is about to change. An important study has found that people with a certain type of gene won't benefit from selected cancer drugs.

Researchers are running trials to test how genes affect the way people respond to different treatments

This is hugely significant because it means gene tests can be used to work out which patients will do best on a drug, and as a result cancer treatments will become much more effective.

Meanwhile, thousands of patients will be saved from the debilitating side-effects of chemotherapy they are given without gaining any benefit.

And because doctors will be able to better target expensive treatments, drugs currently not recommended by NICE because they are not cost-effective could soon be re-evaluated.

(Agencies)