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MINDACT Study Shows Continued Success in Determining Chemotherapy Usage
It has been four years since researchers involved in the MINDACT trial presented data at the annual ASCO meeting showing the ability to use a 70-gene signature to determine if chemotherapy can be avoided for breast cancer patients, according to a study from the 2020 ASCO Annual Meeting. The original MINDACT data showed a distant metastasis-free survival rate at five years of 94.7% in clinical high/genomic low-risk patients who had not received chemotherapy.
In the most recent work, the researchers evaluated distant metastasis-free survival, as well as overall survival in the intention to treat patients randomized to receive chemotherapy or not.
Laura van’t Veer, PhD, from the University of California San Francisco told MD /alert that while the researchers were encouraged by their initial results, it was important to see it verified several years later.
“We specifically asked the question for clinical high-risk patients who until recently would all get chemotherapy recommended; and MINDACT, which is a 7,000-patient trial, shows that almost half of them, 46% can forego chemotherapy. This means that they do not have to suffer from the toxic side effects of chemo,” Dr van’t Veer said.
She went on to say the research could be particularly important for postmenopausal patients, a group which researchers defined as being over 50-years-old.
“In the postmenopausal patients, one part of the trial we also evaluated if the patients that would get chemotherapy would actually do better than the ones without. The primary aim was to show they can safely forgo chemotherapy, which we confirmed. But we wanted to know as well, the group that we have given chemotherapy, do they indeed do not do much better than the ones without.”
By Adam Hochron
In the most recent work, the researchers evaluated distant metastasis-free survival, as well as overall survival in the intention to treat patients randomized to receive chemotherapy or not.
Laura van’t Veer, PhD, from the University of California San Francisco told MD /alert that while the researchers were encouraged by their initial results, it was important to see it verified several years later.
“We specifically asked the question for clinical high-risk patients who until recently would all get chemotherapy recommended; and MINDACT, which is a 7,000-patient trial, shows that almost half of them, 46% can forego chemotherapy. This means that they do not have to suffer from the toxic side effects of chemo,” Dr van’t Veer said.
She went on to say the research could be particularly important for postmenopausal patients, a group which researchers defined as being over 50-years-old.
“In the postmenopausal patients, one part of the trial we also evaluated if the patients that would get chemotherapy would actually do better than the ones without. The primary aim was to show they can safely forgo chemotherapy, which we confirmed. But we wanted to know as well, the group that we have given chemotherapy, do they indeed do not do much better than the ones without.”
By Adam Hochron