Dr. Brufsky on Multiparametric Genomic Assays in Breast Cancer

Adam M. Brufsky, MD, PhD, professor of Medicine, associate chief of Hematology/Oncology, co-director of the Comprehensive Breast Care Center, associate director of Clinical Investigation, University of Pittsburgh, discusses multiparametric assays in breast cancer.

Multiparametric genomic assays are meant to determine the subset of low-risk patients treated with endocrine therapy alone who don’t need chemotherapy. It is a matter of semantics, says Brufsky, and it is crucial that physicians start using them properly, he says.

If physicians can identify a group of women with good prognosis on endocrine therapy alone using these assays, they will not have to consider chemotherapy. Brufsky says that physicians should not be giving chemotherapy to women who have an estrogen receptor (ER)-positive, node-negative tumor under 3 cm that is well differentiated. Other women, with a tumor that is 1 to 3 positive nodes and not as well differentiated, if found to be low risk using the genomic assay, should be given hormone therapy, states Brufsky.