FOCUS Study Shows MammaPrint® Accurately Identifies Extremely Indolent Cancers

The poster, The 70-gene signature (MammaPrint) accurately predicts distant breast cancer recurrence risk in older patients, outlines data from the FOCUS trial, a population-based cohort of over 2,000 people that included all consecutive breast cancer patients over 65 years old diagnosed between 1997 and 2004 in the Comprehensive Cancer Center region West, the Netherlands. The purpose of the study was to assess the stratification of breast cancers by MammaPrint in women over 70 years of age.

Treating older breast cancer patients can be challenging, as they generally have more indolent tumors and a higher likelihood of developing additional conditions that negatively affect their health than younger patients. Current treatment guidelines recommend therapy for these patients based on clinicopathological risk, but these factors are insufficient for accurate determination of prognosis. MammaPrint has been shown to accurately predict recurrence in younger women with breast cancer, and for this study, the 70-gene signature was assessed in women 70 years and older with breast cancer. MammaPrint was found to accurately stratify patients according to their 10-year distant recurrence free interval, as previously demonstrated in younger populations.

Further, the results in the poster show that even clinically high risk patients who were classified as MammaPrint UltraLow Risk – meaning they can have excellent survival without chemotherapy and only limited or no tamoxifen treatment – did not develop any recurrent disease 10 years after diagnosis, opening up treatment options and considerations for doctors and their patients, allowing them to make more informed decisions about the path ahead.

“These data show the importance of knowing everything you can about a cancer, especially when you are working with older patients who may be more fragile or susceptible to harsh treatment,” said Dr. Gerrit-Jan Liefers, Surgeon, Head of the Department of Surgical Oncology of Leiden University Medical Center and the principal investigator of the FOCUS study. “We see genomically low risk patients do very well long-term, which gives us confidence to de-escalate their treatment to something more tolerable and achieve the same success, even if they are clinically high risk. We are pleased to make these data available to the breast cancer community and show the importance of research in all types of breast cancer patients.”

For post-menopausal women who are identified as MammaPrint UltraLow Risk, these results have meaningful implications for their treatment paths.

“This analysis of the FOCUS cohort adds to the growing body of data demonstrating the validity of MammaPrint’s UltraLow Risk threshold,” said Laura Esserman, M.D., Director of the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center, and winner of this year’s Brinker award for Scientific Distinction in Clinical Research. “The data confirm our findings from the STO-3 Trial, as well as data from the IKA tamoxifen trial cohort presented at ESMO earlier this year for node negative hormone positive breast cancer patients. These data should give confidence to patients and their physicians that the UltraLow molecular signature is associated with excellent prognosis even without extended endocrine therapy. De-escalation based on biologic features can be used to reduce the length of treatment, providing more precise treatment. Most important, the UltraLow signature can be used to substantially reduce the burden of treatment in those destined not to benefit. And certainly this can make a huge difference in the quality of life and the anxiety experience over the diagnosis.”

These data are part of a large suite of 13 posters, spotlight sessions and an oral presentation on MammaPrint and BluePrint that were accepted to SABCS 2020, and underscore Agendia’s mission to help guide the diagnosis and personalized treatment of breast cancer for all patients throughout their treatment journey.

About Agendia

Agendia is a precision oncology company headquartered in Irvine, California, committed to bringing early stage breast cancer patients and their physicians the information they need to make the best decisions for the full treatment journey. The company currently offers two commercially-available genomic profiling tests, supported by the highest levels of clinical and real world evidence, that provide comprehensive genomic information that can be used to identify the most effective breast cancer treatment possible for each patient.

MammaPrint^®, the 70-gene breast cancer recurrence assay, is the only FDA-cleared risk of recurrence test backed by peer-reviewed, prospective outcome data and inclusion in both national and international treatment guidelines. BluePrint^®, the 80-gene molecular subtyping assay, is the only commercially-available test that evaluates the underlying biology of a tumor to determine what is driving its growth. Together, MammaPrint^® and BluePrint^® provide a comprehensive genomic profile to help physicians make more informed decisions in the pre- and post-operative treatment settings.

Agendia develops evidence-based novel genomic tests and forges partnerships with groundbreaking companies to develop next-generation digital treatment tools. The ongoing research builds an arsenal of data that improve patient outcomes and support the evolving clinical needs of breast cancer patients and their physicians every step of the way, from initial diagnosis to cancer-free.

Agendia’s assays can be ordered on core biopsies or surgical specimens to inform pre- and post-operative treatment decisions. For more information on Agendia’s assays and ongoing trials, please visit www.agendia.com.

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