Veracyte's Prosigna IDs Breast Cancer Patients Likely to Benefit from Aggressive Chemotherapy

A new retrospective study published in NPJ Breast Cancer on Monday suggests that Veracyte's Prosigna breast cancer prognostic gene signature assay can identify the subgroups of patients who are more likely to benefit from aggressive chemotherapy.

Veracyte obtained exclusive global diagnostic rights to NanoString Technologies' nCounter FLEX Analysis System last December, and with it gained the rights to the Prosigna test.

what is nids -cleared prognostic gene signature assay is intended to be used to gauge the 10-year recurrence risk in postmenopausal women with node-negative (Stage I or II) or node-positive (Stage II), hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. The recurrence risk provided by the test can be useful information for physicians trying to decide how aggressively to treat patients with hormone therapy.

The NPJ Breast Cancer study analyzed data from the DBCG89D trial — a randomized trial of 980 pre- and post-menopausal Danish women with early-stage breast cancer who were administered adjuvant chemotherapy regimens containing the anthracycline epirubicin, or cyclophosphamide/methotrexate/fluorouracil (CMF). The Prosigna 50-gene assay was successfully performed on 686 patients, of whom 38 percent had a basal-like breast cancer subtype, 32 percent had HER2-enriched subtype, 19 percent had luminal A, and 11 percent had luminal B.

Among the non-HER2-enriched, patients, 38 were clinically HER2-positive and 30 were TOP2A abnormal. HER2-enriched is a subtype of HER2-positive breast cancer that's characterized by high expression of ERBB2 and related genes. The HER2-enriched biomarker has also been associated with a higher likelihood of achieving pathological complete response following neoadjuvant anti-HER2-based therapy beyond hormone receptor status and chemotherapy use.