From the new tests of breast cancer it has been noticed that counting tumor cells had become a standard part of treatment.

It was told by the US experts that forecasting a woman's chances of staying alive could help the doctors to make a decision on when to change or discontinue the therapy.

The scientists led by Dr. Antonio Giordano, from the MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, Texas, explained that the number of tumor cells in the blood was connected to the survival of women who were suffering from breast cancer.

On Thursday, the findings were shown at the IMPAKT Breast Cancer Conference in Brussels.

"We found that there was a linear relationship between the number of circulating tumor cells and the risk of death in patients with metastatic breast cancer. Most importantly, the risk of death after one year for patients with 40 circulating tumor cells in 7.5ml of blood was about twice that for patients with none", said Dr. Giordano.

He said that counting circulating tumor was now considered as a standard test for women who were suffering from advanced breast cancer.

He added that by monitoring the tumor cells they could know when to modify regimens or stop therapy.