The prognosis of breast cancer recurrence is the best of the existing ones
Americans have developed a new test for the risk of recurrence of breast cancer
A paper on the results of comparative clinical trials of three prediction methods was published in the journal Lancet Oncology (Sgroi et al., Prediction of late distant recurrence in patients with oestrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer: a prospective comparison of the breast-cancer index (BCI) assay, 21-gene recurrence score, and IHC4 in the TransATAC study population).
Standard therapy for estrogen-dependent breast cancer includes, to minimize the risk of recurrence of the disease, a five-year course of the antagonist of the female sex hormone estrogen tamoxifen in pre-menopause or aromatase inhibitors, for example anastrozole in post-menopause. However, a certain percentage of patients, nevertheless, continues to be threatened by the return of the disease even after the completion of treatment.
The authors previously developed the breast cancer index (BCI), a biomarker based on the assessment of the expression levels of seven tumor–specific genes. Previous studies have shown that with the help of BCI, it is possible to identify patients who, despite hormone therapy, are at risk of a rapid (within five years after diagnosis) recurrence of breast cancer.
In the course of the current study, conducted at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Research Center (Gene-expression-based biomarker predicts long-term risk of breast cancer recurrence), prognostic abilities were compared with respect to the probability of both rapid and delayed return of the disease, three methods – BCI and two more, also based on based on the assessment of gene expression levels and those already used in clinical practice. We are talking about the Oncotype Dx Recurrence Score test, which is now the "gold standard" in the development of an individualized breast cancer control program, which takes into account the expression levels of 21 genes, and the less common ICH4 test.
All three methods were used in the analysis of tumor tissue samples from more than 650 patients obtained from the TransATAC tissue bank. The results were then compared with data on cancer recurrence in the participants for ten years after the first operation and the start of hormone therapy.
Although all methods did a good job of predicting the risk of relapses in the first five years, only BCI was able to make a long–term prognosis - it absolutely accurately identified 60 percent of patients who had a low probability of returning the disease after ten years and 40 percent of those who continued to remain at significant risk.
Thus, the authors conclude, BCI is the only test that effectively provides both short-term and long-term prognosis of the likelihood of recurrence of breast cancer. The introduction of BCI into clinical practice will allow identifying patients who need an extended course of hormone therapy, and those who do not need it.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru18.09.2013