A preliminary report of head-to-head comparison of 18-gene-based clinical-genomic model and oncotype DX 21-gene assay for predicting recurrence of early-stage breast cancer

BACKGROUND: The information of Oncotype DX applied in Asian breast cancer patients is limited. A recurrence index for distant recurrence (RI-DR) has been developed for early-stage breast cancer (EBC) from tumor samples in Chinese patients. In this study, we compared the prognostic performance of the Oncotype DX (ODx) recurrence score (RS) with the RI-DR for any recurrence risk type. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred thirty-eight (138) patients with hormone receptor-positive and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative EBC who were previously tested with ODx were included for testing with the RI-DR. The cutoff score to partition the low- and high-risk patients was 26 for RS and 36 for RI-DR. The primary endpoint was recurrence-free survival (RFS). RESULTS: The concordance between the RI-DR and RS was 83% in N0 patients and 81% in node-positive patients when the RS score cutoff was set at 26. With a median follow-up interval of 36.8 months, the 4-year RFS for the high- and low-risk groups categorized by the RS were 61.9% and 95.0%, respectively (hazard ratio: 10.6, 95.0% confidence interval [CI]: 1.8–62.9). The 4-year RFS in the high- and low-risk groups categorized by the RI-DR were 72.6% and 98.5%, respectively (hazard ratio: 18.9, 95% CI: 1.8–138.8). CONCLUSION: This paper illustrated the performance of RI-DR and ODx RS in breast cancer women in Taiwan. There was high concordance between the RI-DR and RS. The RI-DR is not inferior to the RS in predicting RFS in EBC patients. This study will fill the gap between the current and best practice in Chinese patients.