Some breast cancer patients with low genetic risk may not need chemotherapy, trial shows

Women with early stage breast cancer who are at high clinical risk for recurrence but who show low genomic risk on the basis of 70 gene signature testing have a high five year survival rate without chemotherapy, a randomised trial has shown.1

Decisions on adjuvant systemic therapy for women with early stage breast cancer are based on tumour characteristics, including hormonal receptor and HER2 status, tumour grade and size, lymph node status, and patient related factors, such as age and menopausal status.

Treatment algorithms do not currently consider the individual biological characteristics of a patient’s tumour, even …