ASO Author Reflections: No Profiling in Male Breast Cancer: Where We are and Where We Should Be

Excerpt

The decision-making process for adjuvant systemic therapy in breast cancer (BC) treatment has been evaluated by multiple randomized trials. These trials have used molecular assays to assess the safety of de-escalating or personalizing the treatment approach for patients with a low risk of recurrence. Specifically, the 21-gene Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score assay (Genomic Health, Redwood City, CA, USA) has been used to determine the predicted response when chemotherapy is added to adjuvant endocrine therapy for patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative early-stage breast cancers.1 Recently, further refinement for patients with an intermediate recurrence score (RS) continues to provide insight into the benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy.2 Due to the relative rarity of male breast cancer (MBC), male patients are underrepresented in clinical trials evaluating genomic assays despite the fact that most MBC patients have HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.3 For that reason, the majority of MBC treatment appears to remain unchanged compared with that for female counterparts. Clinicians, therefore, are left without clinical data to make practice-changing recommendations in the treatment of MBC patients. …