Emerging gene-based prognostic tools in early breast cancer: First steps to personalised medicine

Table 1 Comparison of gene-based prognostic assays for early oestrogen receptor + breast cancer

Prognostic assay	Manufacturer	Underlying technology	No. of genes	Test induction	Output/score	Comments
MammaPrint	Agendia BV, The Netherland	DNA microarrays	70	Reference lab	Risk category for recurrence (low risk vs high risk)	Prospective validation is awaited with the results of the ongoing MINDACT trial
Oncotype-DX	Genomic Health Inc., CA, United States	qRT-PCR	21	Reference lab	RS scores (1-100) stratified into low, intermediate and high-risk groups for recurrence	Oncotype-DX has been included in several guidelines, and has been validated by internal industrial studies (NSABB trial B14). The characterisation of intermediate risk group awaits the results of the TAILORx trial
PAM50/Prosigna	NanoString Technologies, Inc., WA, United States	DNA microarrays and qRT-PCR using nCounter technology	50	Reference lab	ROR scores (1-100) stratified into low, intermediate and high risk groups	The assay was been validated in studies based on the ATAC and ABCSG-8 trials
EndoPredict	Sividon Diagnostics GmbH, Köln, Germany	qRT-PCR	8	Local lab	Low or high risk groups on the basis of EP or EPClin scores	EndoPredict has been validated in ABCSG-6 and ABCSG-8 trials, and has been included in German guidelines. Potentially shorter turnover at lower cost, as there is no need for dispatching samples to a reference laboratory

qRT-PCR: Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction; ROR: Risk of recurrence.