26 Aug 70-Gene Signature Can Help Identify Early-Stage Breast Cancer Patients Who Do Not Need Chemotherapy

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Laura Van’t Leer

Prof. Laura van ’t Veer, PhD
Leader, Breast Oncology Program, and Director, Applied Genomics, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
Angela and Shu Kai Chan Endowed Chair in Cancer Research
UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: MINDACT was designed to involve only patients with node negative and 1 to 3 positive lymph node breast cancer. Node negative breast cancer is a cancer that has not spread to the surrounding lymph nodes and therefore has a lower risk of recurrence. Scientists have also demonstrated that breast cancer which has spread to 1 to 3 lymph nodes may behave like node negative breast cancer. Patients with either node negative cancer or with a cancer that involves 1-3 lymph nodes are often prescribed chemotherapy, although physicians believe that approximately 15% of them do not require such treatment.

MINDACT provides the highest level of evidence to show that using MammaPrint® can substantially reduce the use of chemotherapy in patients with node-negative and 1-to-3 node positive breast cancer – in other words, it can identify patients with these types of breast cancer who can safely be spared a treatment that may cause significant side effects, and will offer no to very little benefit.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: MINDACT provides the highest level of evidence to show that using MammaPrint® can substantially reduce the use of chemotherapy in patients with node-negative and 1-to-3 node positive breast cancer – in other words, it can identify patients who can safely be spared a treatment that may cause significant side effects, and will offer no to very little benefit.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: Dr. Martine Piccart, MD, PhD, co-founder and chair of the Breast International Group (BIG), head of the Medicine Department at the Jules Bordet Institute in Brussels, Belgium, and co-principal investigator of the trial: “MINDACT can be qualified as a landmark study. Not only has the MINDACT trial the potential to change the way doctors treat patients with breast cancer, it has also created a huge resource for future research, because research using the participants’ tumour samples, blood samples, and clinical outcomes data could allow us to gain a substantially better understanding of the biology of breast cancer.”

MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Response: The MINDACT trial has been managed and sponsored by the European Organisation of Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) as part of an extensive and complex partnership in collaboration with the Breast International Group (BIG), Agendia, and a great many other academic and commercial partners, including the patient advocacy network Europa Donna and the European CanCer Organisation.

MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.

Citation:

70-Gene Signature as an Aid to Treatment Decisions in Early-Stage Breast Cancer
Fatima Cardoso, M.D., Laura J. van’t Veer, Ph.D., Jan Bogaerts, Ph.D., Leen Slaets, Ph.D., Giuseppe Viale, M.D., Suzette Delaloge, M.D., Jean-Yves Pierga, M.D., Ph.D., Etienne Brain, M.D., Ph.D., Sylvain Causeret, M.D., Mauro DeLorenzi, Ph.D., Annuska M. Glas, Ph.D., Vassilis Golfinopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., Theodora Goulioti, M.D., Susan Knox, M.A., Erika Matos, M.D., Bart Meulemans, M.Sc., Peter A. Neijenhuis, M.D., Ulrike Nitz, M.D., Ph.D., Rodolfo Passalacqua, M.D., Peter Ravdin, M.D., Isabel T. Rubio, M.D., Mahasti Saghatchian, M.D., Tineke J. Smilde, M.D., Ph.D., Christos Sotiriou, M.D., Ph.D., Lisette Stork, M.Sc., Carolyn Straehle, Ph.D., Geraldine Thomas, Ph.D., Alastair M. Thompson, M.D., Jacobus M. van der Hoeven, M.D., Ph.D., Peter Vuylsteke, M.D., René Bernards, Ph.D., Konstantinos Tryfonidis, M.D., Emiel Rutgers, M.D., Ph.D., and Martine Piccart, M.D., Ph.D., for the MINDACT Investigators*
N Engl J Med 2016; 375:717-729
August 25, 2016DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa1602253

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Last Updated on August 26, 2016 by Marie Benz MD FAAD