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Do you have concerns about the generalizability of MammaPrint/Oncotype testing in making chemotherapy decisions for non-Caucasian women?

For example, women of Southeast Asian descent.
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Do you have concerns about the generalizability of gene expression assays in making chemotherapy decisions for non-Caucasian women?

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4 Answers
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Medical Oncology · Mary Lanning Healthcare Morrison Cancer Center/University of Nebraska Medical Center Adjunct Faculty
Answered on

This question can be expanded to include differences in risk classification between MammaPrint and Oncotype DX. For Oncotype DX, large real-world studies and clinical trials (such as TAILORx and RxPONDER) show that recurrence score distribution and predictive value for chemotherapy benefit are simil...

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Medical Oncology · Yale School of Medicine
Answered on

I do not have any concerns about the technical validity of these assays in non-Caucasian women. I even find the question faintly offensive; it implies that there are fundamental genetic differences between ancestry groups that are so deep that they alter the biology of their cancer.

However, socioec...

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Medical Oncology · Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Westchester
Answered on

I think the tests are generally applicable to non-Caucasian women, but should consider an “added margin of safety” in interpretation, considering racial minorities were underrepresented in some original validation studies.

For women of Southeast Asian descent, data is limited. A SEER analysis conclud...

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Medical Oncology · Duke University
Answered on

Results of large randomized trials and the integration of those results into treatment guidelines force us to generalize trial results, whether or not the populations in those trials included sufficient non-Caucasian women to allow for meaningful subset analyses. Insurance carriers/payors limit our ...

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