Multigene expression signatures in early hormone receptor positive HER 2 negative breast cancer

Abstract

The standard treatment of hormone receptor positive, HER2 negative early breast cancer (BC) is surgery followed by adjuvant systemic therapy either with endocrine therapy alone or with the addition of chemotherapy followed by endocrine therapy. Adjuvant systemic therapy reduces the risk of recurrence and death from BC. Whether the individual patient will benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy is an important clinical decision. Decisions that rely solely on clinico-pathological factors can sometimes lead to overtreatment. Multigene signatures represent a  progress in optimal selection of the high risk patients that might benefit from addition of chemotherapy to adjuvant systemic therapy. Several of these signatures are already commercially available and accepted by international guidelines, The value of Oncotype DX and MammaPrint has most extensive evidence-based support which is reviewed in this article.

Key words: hormone receptor positive HER-2 negative early breast cancer, adjuvant systemic therapy, multigene signatures