AURORA, Colo. -- A groundbreaking new study could put an end to one-size-fits-all breast cancer treatments.

In an unusual move, the National Institutes of Health is partnering with a number of pharmaceutical companies to test dozens of different breast cancer treatment drugs targeting specific strains of late-term breast cancer. Breast cancer patients said the wide-ranging study, dubbed I-SPY2, is encouraging news for patients who undergo painful treatments that oftentimes prove ineffective for their particular type of breast cancer.

“What we have now in cancer care is broad use of very toxic medications that may work for some individuals very well, but not work very well for other individuals,” said Vicki Tosher, founder of Sense of Security, a nonprofit that provides financial help to women with cancer. Tosher was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993 and underwent at least one chemotherapy treatment that she later found out was not effective against her type of cancer.

“We give therapy because statistically it does a really good job,” said Dr. Anthony Elias, an oncologist with the University of Colorado Hospital. “But you really don’t know until five, ten years later whether it actually worked.”

Elias said this study could change that, allowing doctors to test dozens of different medications against major types of breast cancer, based on the cancer’s genetic marker or “biomarker,” all within a relatively short period of time—five years.

Patients at 20 cancer centers, including the University of Colorado’s, will be tested after getting biopsies. Before they getting surgery, they will be treated with one of up to 20 drugs to see if it helps prevent tumor spread. The format of the study will allow researchers to quickly reject approaches that do not work. Patients would receive chemotherapy in conjunction with the targeted treatments.

“We’re hoping to get some drugs that will push the chemotherapy to be much more effective,” said Elias.

Elias said the collaboration between public and private agencies would provide a trove of new information to researchers more swiftly than ever.

At least 20 drugs are expected to be tested over the five-year period, far more than the average clinical trial, which normally tests just one drug. The process is expected to save pharmaceutical companies time and money.

And even better, Tosher said, unlike in private clinical trials, pharmaceutical companies would be required to report the findings, regardless of whether the results were favorable to their drug.