Wellness
Precision oncology is here — So why are so many breast cancer treatments still a gamble?
By OncoGenomX, Allschwil, Switzerland
When it comes to breast cancer treatment, one truth remains painfully clear: despite decades of progress we still cannot answer the question which treatment(s) a tumour will respond to.
At OncoGenomX, we think it’s time to change that.
We now have tools that allow us to look inside a tumour, understand how it behaves, and predict what treatments will work best—not just for a cancer subtype, but for an individual tumour, with its unique biology.
It’s called Precision Oncology, and it’s one of the most promising frontiers in cancer care. But right now, its full potential is still out of reach for too many patients.
So why the gap?
The Promise: Personalised Treatment That Works the First Time
The dream of precision medicine is simple: treat the person, not just the disease.
In breast cancer, doctors already use some personalised tools. For example, hormone receptor tests help decide whether a patient should receive endocrine therapy.
Genetic tests like Oncotype DXTM or MammaprintTM can help determine whether chemotherapy is needed. These are great first steps.
But here’s the problem: these tools don’t go far enough. They often tell us what could work, but not what will work. Many patients are still treated based on probabilities and population averages, not precise predictions tailored to their specific tumour.
The result? Too many women receive therapies that don’t work—or stop working quickly. Some get treatments that are too aggressive. Others don’t get enough.
The Reality: Cancer Is Chaotic
Part of the reason breast cancer is so difficult to treat is that no two tumours are alike. Even within a single tumour, cells can behave very differently.
Scientists call this “coordinated chaos.” It means that a treatment might hit some parts of a tumour—but miss others entirely. It also means that two women with the “same” diagnosis may need completely different treatments.
In one major study, only about 1 in 5 patients with advanced cancer actually received all the treatments they were genetically eligible for. Even more worrying: in half of the cases, at least one drug in the treatment plan was likely ineffective.
This isn’t just a medical issue—it’s an economic one. Unmatched or suboptimal therapies drive up costs, delay results, and cause unnecessary side effects.
Precision isn’t just better for patients—it’s better for health systems too.
The Breakthrough: Predicting Treatment Response
At OncoGenomX, we believe the missing link is prediction.
We need tools that can do more than classify tumours or identify potential drug targets. We need models that predict how a specific tumour will respond to tailor-made treatment combination.
That’s why we created PredictionStar™, a clinical decision-support tool designed to help oncologists choose optimal treatment combinations, earlier.
It works by analysing real patient data, tumour biology, and how different therapies interact—so doctors can plan treatment combinations based on what’s most likely to work in concert.
In hypothesis generation studies, we’ve seen a 15–22 per cent improvement in treatment success rates—especially beyond first-line therapy. And when treatments work better, patients do better: survival improves, side effects decrease, and costs drop.
The Future: Smarter, More Human-Centered Oncology
We’re not claiming to cure cancer. But we do believe that better decisions lead to better outcomes.
Our goal is to help oncologists move away from treatment decisions based on probabilities and population averages towards truly rational and individualised treatment planning. That means:
Understanding which therapies are likely to work before trying them
Combining treatments in ways that maximise long-term benefit
Matching each patient to the right combination—any treatment line
This is especially important for women’s health.
Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide. Yet many women still receive treatments that don’t reflect the full complexity of their disease—or the sophistication of today’s science.
Why It Matters for FemTech
At its core, precision oncology is a FemTech issue. It’s about using technology, data, and science to improve women’s lives.
Breast cancer doesn’t affect all women equally. Outcomes vary by age, race, income, and geography.
That’s why we must ensure that the tools of precision oncology are accessible, equitable, and informed by real-world data from all patients—not just clinical trial populations.
By combining human data, artificial intelligence, and biology, we can move toward a future where every woman receives the best possible care, from the very first treatment.
A Question Worth Asking
If there were a tool with the potential to help doctors select the right treatment combination for a patient’s tumour—based on predictive information—wouldn’t we want them to use it?
At OncoGenomX, we think the answer is clear.
The future of breast cancer care is personal. Let’s make it predictable, too.
Find out more about OncoGenomX at oncogenomx.ch
Mental health
Poor mental health, poverty and pollution significantly raise women’s heart failure risk – study
Poor mental health, poverty and pollution can raise women’s heart failure risk, with up to one in four cases potentially preventable, a study has found.
UK Biobank data from more than 230,000 women suggest that depression, socioeconomic hardship and exposure to polluted environments are linked to a significantly higher risk of heart failure in women.
Heart failure happens when the heart becomes too weak or too stiff to pump blood effectively around the body.
High blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking and diabetes are among the better-known risk factors often targeted in public health campaigns.
Peige Song from China’s Zhejiang University and her team found that living in polluted areas, having poor mental wellbeing, facing socioeconomic deprivation and experiencing chronic inflammatory conditions such as lupus, in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, make women more prone to heart failure.
These risks, however, are often overlooked.
The researchers found that mental wellbeing, environmental exposures, socioeconomic circumstances and reproductive history together contributed almost as much risk for heart failure as all well-known risk factors combined.
The study also found that risk rises with socioeconomic hardship and chronic inflammatory conditions such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, approaching the impact of conventional risk factors.
Song said: “[The study] is a call to redefine prevention in women’s cardiovascular health, integrating biological, psychosocial and structural determinants into a unified, equitable approach.
“One in four heart-failure cases in women could be prevented if all under-recognised risk factors were eliminated, assuming causal relationships.”
While completely eliminating all risks is not realistic, Song said “even partial reductions through better mental health services, social equity policies and environmental regulations could yield significant public health benefits”.
Catherine Pirkle, a women’s health specialist at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in the US, who was not involved in the study, said: “These calculations show convincingly that under-recognised and female-specific risk factors contribute significantly to heart failure in women, independently of the well-established ones.”
Song said: “It’s important to understand that heart health is influenced by more than just blood pressure or cholesterol.
“Factors like mental wellbeing, reproductive milestones and socioeconomic conditions all matter. Awareness and advocacy for comprehensive, gender-sensitive care are key.”
Resistance training improves hip strength, balance and flexibility during menopause and may also improve lean body mass, research suggests.
A study of 72 active women aged 46 to 57 found those who completed a 12-week supervised programme saw greater gains than those who kept to their usual exercise routines.
None of the participants were taking hormone replacement therapy.
The supervised, low-impact resistance exercise programme focused on strength at the hip and shoulder, dynamic balance and flexibility.
Participants used Pvolve equipment, including resistance bands and weights around the hips, wrists and ankles, and also lifted dumbbells of varying loads.
Women in the resistance training group showed a 19 per cent increase in hip function and lower-body strength, a 21 per cent increase in full-body flexibility and a 10 per cent increase in dynamic balance, meaning the ability to stay stable while moving.
Those in the usual activity group did not show any significant improvements.
Previous studies have assessed the decline in lower limb strength and flexibility during menopause, but this is said to be the first study to compare the effect of resistance training on muscle strength and mass before, during and after menopause.
This was done by including participants in different phases of menopause rather than following the same participants over a long timeframe.
Francis Stephens, a researcher at the University of Exeter Medical School in the UK, said: “These results are important because women appear to be more susceptible to loss of leg strength as they age, particularly after menopause, which can lead to increased risk of falls and hip fractures.
“This is the first study to demonstrate that a low-impact bodyweight and resistance band exercise training programme with a focus on the lower limbs, can increase hip strength, balance, and flexibility.
“Importantly, these improvements were the same in peri- and post-menopausal females when compared to pre-menopausal females, suggesting that changes associated with menopause do not mitigate the benefits of exercise.”
Although one of the researchers sits on Pvolve’s clinical advisory board, the researchers said the company did not sponsor the study or influence its results.
Stephens added that any progressive resistance exercise training focused on lower-body strength is likely to yield the same results.
He said: “The important point is for an individual to find a type of exercise, modality, location, time of day etc., that is enjoyable, sustainable, and improves everyday life.
“The participants in the present study reported an improvement in ‘enjoyment of exercise,’ and some are still using the programme since the study finished.”
Kylie Larson, a women’s health and fitness coach and founder of Elemental Coaching, who was not involved in the study, said the results were compelling.
She said: “This is particularly exciting for those that tend to think of menopause as ‘the end’. The study proves that if you incorporate strength training you can still make improvements to your muscle mass and strength, which will also have a positive ripple effect to your ability to manage your body composition.
“In addition, staying flexible and being able to balance are both keys to a healthy and functional second half of life.”
Participants in the study did four classes a week for 30 minutes each session, but Larson said even half that amount of strength training can go a long way, particularly if you emphasise progressive overload, which means gradually increasing muscle challenge through more weight.
Larson said: “Gradually increasing the challenge is what drives real change.
“Lifting heavier over time is what builds strength, protects your bones, and keeps your body resilient through menopause and beyond.”
France will reimburse reusable period products for women under 26 and those on low incomes, in a move aimed at tackling period poverty.
The measure is expected to help 6.7m people, almost a tenth of France’s population of 69m, from the start of the next academic year in the autumn.
Women under 26 with a state health insurance card, as well as women of all ages who receive special healthcare support because of limited income, will be able to claim reimbursement after buying the products from a pharmacy. The cost will be covered through the country’s social security system.
Parliament approved the measure as part of the country’s social security budget for 2024. However, no decree was issued to bring it into force, prompting anger among feminist groups and companies making the sustainable sanitary items.
A survey of 4,000 women in France in November found that one in ten had used alternatives to mainstream period products, such as ripped-up clothes, because of tight budgets, according to French charity Dons Solidaires.
France cut sales tax on period products from 20 per cent to 5.5 per cent in 2016. In 2020, Scotland became the first country in the world to sign into law free universal access to period products in public buildings.
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