Breast cancer treatment improving?

October 15, 2013 (WLS) -- Trial and error. Many breast cancer patients spend months in the waiting game, but a new technique could speed up how long it takes to see if a treatment is working.

Scientists use a technique called optimal metabolic imaging to see how quickly a tumor breaks down sugar, which cancer cells do much faster than healthy cells. If the tumor burns through the sugar more slowly after a cancer treatment begins, there are fewer cancer cells present- and doctors are on the right path.

Optimal metabolic imaging can show whether a treatment is working in just two days.

More research is needed, but that means the waiting game for women with breast cancer could become much shorter soon.

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