Novel Tool to Predict Risk of Late Distant Recurrence in Patients With Breast Cancer
Posted: Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Using data from two studies, Mitch Dowsett, PhD, Head of The Royal Marsden Ralph Lauren Centre for Breast Cancer Research, and colleagues created a tool that may predict the long-term risk of distant recurrence of breast cancer. Published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the study may help clinicians to determine which patients may benefit from extended endocrine therapy and which low-risk patients may avoid additional therapy along with its potential side effects.
“What we have developed could improve clinical practice, benefiting breast cancer patients by avoiding potentially unnecessary extended treatment,” said Dr. Dowsett in a press release from the NHS Foundation Trust of The Royal Marsden. “This tool uses information that is already gathered in all patients, so could be easily used across the UK and globally at other centres.”
The researchers analyzed data from two previously published studies to create the CTS5 (Clinical Treatment Score post 5 years). They used the ATAC trial data set, including 4,735 patients, to measure how many developed metastasis 5 to 10 years after completing hormone therapy. They then tested their results by comparing recurrence in the 6,711 patients from the BIG 1-98 data set.
They found that the CTS5 calculator could stratify patients into low-, intermediate-, or high-risk categories for developing a late distant recurrence of breast cancer 5 years after hormone therapy. The tool found 43% of the patients to be at low risk, suggesting that further hormone therapy treatment may be of limited value for them; the late distant recurrence rate was 3.6% during years 5 to 10.
