How is the Oncytype DX test used by doctors?
Has your doctor mentioned the Oncotype DX test for colon cancer? This new diagnostic tool is helping doctors better quantify the risk of a cancer recurring. Doctors will modify your treatment according to your Oncotype DX score to give you the best treatment possible. Dr. Kelly Shimabukuro discusses how doctors use this new test in this short video. Learn why doctors are using the Oncotype DX tests more and more.
To learn more about the Oncotype DX test watch “Oncotype DX Colon Cancer Treatment Decisions” with Dr. Mark F. Kozloff.
Video Transcripts
Kelly A. Shimabukuro, MD: So, the Oncotype DX colon cancer test is a test that can be used, it is a diagnostic tool that I use in terms of helping to better quantify the risk for a cancer recurring in colon cancer. So, I use it particularly in my stage 2 and some of my stage 3 colon cancer patients, who by the number, particularly in stage 2 cancer, by the numbers, they do not have a very high chance of recurring, but there is going to be a group of patients, who may have a higher risk for recurrence than what would be normally estimated based upon the other tools that we may use and some of the tools we use are looking at the pathology report for things we call high risk features, but it is a test that can be sent on a piece of the colon that was resected at the time of their surgery and it takes about two weeks to get the results, but what it does is it gives you a score that is from 0-100 that gives you an idea of what is your risk for cancer recurring and so, it is a useful piece of information for many of my patients and it helps us, you know, the patient and myself make an educated decision about whether to do chemotherapy or not.
Latest posts by Kelly Shimabukuro (see all)
- Feel Like You Want to Avoid Chemotherapy? - January 1, 1970
- The Difference Between Genetic and Genomic Testing - January 1, 1970
- The Role of the Medical Oncologist during Colon Cancer - January 1, 1970
