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VIDEO: Genomic assays have role in determining need for adjuvant chemotherapy
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The use of genomic assays for determining which patients with breast cancer require adjuvant chemotherapy has been “a matter of some debate for at least a decade,” according to Adam M. Brufsky, MD, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Center.
Brufsky, who is also a HemOnc Today Editorial Board member, reviews specific genomic assays used to predict which patients may or may not benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy, as well as other factors in this decision-making process.
Some of the “most exciting” recent research in this area are the results of the MINDACT study, presented by Martine Piccart, MD, PhD, at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting in April 2016. Additional results from this trial, as well as further studies in this area, are needed, according to Brufsky, but “I think this is really, at least preliminarily, a very profound piece of data suggesting that if you are genomically low-risk, regardless of your clinical phenotype, with hormonal therapy alone, your five-year distant metastasis-free survival is in the nexus of 92% to 94%.”