Traditionally, doctors use physical and medical factors to decide if DCIS patients need radiation or hormone therapy following surgery. But this method is not always accurate.
A study presented at the 42nd Annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference showed a 7-gene biosignature test could more accurately identify DCIS patients who would actually benefit from radiation and/or hormone therapy after breast-conserving surgery, compared to traditional clinicopathologic risk criteria.
Researchers analyzed tissue samples from 926 DCIS patients. They found that women labeled “low risk” by traditional methods included a substantial number of women who, per the 7-gene test, were actually at higher risk and did benefit from radiation. Other women who were correctly identified as “low risk” per the 7-gene test were shown to not benefit from either radiation or hormone therapy, and could safely skip these extra treatments.
The study concluded that the 7-gene biosignature test provides superior risk stratification over traditional methods. In the future, the test could be used to better personalize treatment decisions by avoiding overtreatment with radiation or hormone therapy in genuinely low-risk patients, and by ensuring high risk patients receive the interventions they need.
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