Manjiri Bakre, an IISc scientist and founder of OncoStem, an oncology company that has developed an AI-based test to help determine which early-stage breast cancer patients genuinely need chemotherapy and who can safely avoid it.
One of the biggest challenges in early-stage breast cancer treatment is that many women undergo chemotherapy even though they may derive little benefit from it. Chemotherapy can have lasting physical and emotional side effects, making the decision to undergo treatment a deeply challenging one.
To address this, Dr. Bakre and her team developed CanAssist Breast, an AI-based test that helps doctors determine whether women with early-stage breast cancer are likely to benefit from chemotherapy or can safely avoid it. The test combines tumour biomarkers with clinical parameters to generate a personalised recurrence risk score, enabling more informed treatment decisions.
Large clinical studies have shown that nearly 70% of women with early-stage HR+/HER2– (a specific type) of breast cancer derive minimal benefit from chemotherapy. CanAssist Breast aims to reduce unnecessary treatment while ensuring that women who genuinely need chemotherapy receive it.
Developed and clinically validated on over 4,000 Asian and Caucasian patients, the test is today prescribed by more than 800 oncologists across India, the Middle East and South Asia, and has supported treatment decisions for over 8,000 patients.
Dr Bakre holds a PhD in Cell Biology from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and has built her research career across India, Singapore, and the United States, including serving as a Research Scientist at the Genome Institute of Singapore. She has also served as a Principal Scientist at Philips Research, Bangalore, and held research positions at Avesthagen Limited, the University of California, San Diego, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York.
Read the full story that first appeared in The Global Indian here:
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