You are here
June 12, 2018
Test predicts whether chemotherapy will help early-stage breast cancer patients
At a Glance
- Among women with the most common type of breast cancer, those with certain genetic risk scores didn鈥檛 benefit from receiving chemotherapy in addition to hormone therapy.
- The results may help prevent many women with breast cancer from undergoing unnecessary chemotherapy treatment.
Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer in the United States. Half of the聽cases involve tumors that contain receptors for the hormones estrogen and/or progesterone (hormone receptor (HR)-positive), have very little of a growth-related protein called HER2 on the surface (HER2-negative), and have not moved to the lymph nodes (axillary lymph node-negative).
Many women with this type of breast cancer are advised to receive chemotherapy in addition to radiation and hormonal therapy. Treatment recommendations are based on their risk for a breast cancer recurrence. There are several commercially available tests to predict breast cancer recurrence. The Oncotype DX test (Genomic Health, Inc.) assesses 21 genes to assign a risk score for cancer recurrence on a scale of 0鈥100. Based on earlier evidence, women with a score in the low-risk range (0鈥10) can receive hormone therapy only. Those with a score in the high-risk range (26 and above) should be treated with hormone therapy and chemotherapy. For women with an intermediate level of risk for recurrence (11鈥25), however, the best course of action hasn鈥檛 been clear.
To investigate treatment options for women with intermediate risk levels, a clinical trial called TAILORx was designed to follow more than 10,000 women worldwide who had early-stage, HR-positive, HER2-negative, axillary lymph node-颅negative breast cancer. The study was supported in part by NIH鈥檚 National Cancer Institute (NCI).
When the women were enrolled, from April 2006 to October 2010, their tumors were analyzed using the Oncotype DX test. Those in the low-risk range received hormone therapy only. Those in the high-risk range were treated with hormone therapy and chemotherapy. Women in the intermediate range were randomly assigned to receive hormone therapy with chemotherapy or hormone therapy alone. Results were published online in the聽New England Journal of Medicine on June 3, 2018.
The rates of women who survived, or didn鈥檛 develop a recurrence or a second primary cancer, were very similar in both groups in the intermediate risk category. Five years after treatment, the rate of invasive disease-free survival was 92.8% for hormone therapy alone and 93.1% for those who also had chemotherapy. At nine years, the rate was 83.3% for those with hormone therapy alone and 84.3% for the group that had both therapies.
Some premenopausal women and those younger than 50 years old at the higher end of the intermediate-risk range (16鈥25) showed a small benefit from chemotherapy. However, it鈥檚 unclear why. Women in this group should consider chemotherapy with their doctor.
鈥淭he new results from TAILORx give clinicians high-quality data to inform personalized treatment recommendations for women,鈥 says lead researcher Dr. Joseph A. Sparano of the Albert Einstein Cancer Center and Montefiore Health System. 鈥淭hese data confirm that using a 21-gene expression test to assess the risk of cancer recurrence can spare women unnecessary treatment if the test indicates that chemotherapy is not likely to provide benefit.鈥
Related Links
- Breast Cancer Tumor Test to Tailor Treatments
- Blood Test Detects Several Cancer Types
- Gene Variants Predict Response to Breast Cancer Drugs
- New Insights Into Breast Cancer
References: . Sparano JA, Gray RJ, Makower DF, Pritchard KI, Albain KS, Hayes DF, Geyer CE Jr, Dees EC, Goetz MP, Olson JA Jr, Lively T, Badve SS, Saphner TJ, Wagner LI, Whelan TJ, Ellis MJ, Paik S, Wood WC, Ravdin PM, Keane MM, Gomez Moreno HL, Reddy PS, Goggins TF, Mayer IA, Brufsky AM, Toppmeyer DL, Kaklamani VG, Berenberg JL, Abrams J, Sledge GW Jr. N Engl J Med. 2018 Jun 3. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1804710. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 29860917.
Funding: NIH鈥檚 National Cancer Institute (NCI); Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute; Breast Cancer Research Foundation; Komen Foundation; U.S. Postal Service; and Genomic Health.