"The clinical experiences of these physicians underscore the value of using Oncotype DX for node-positive breast cancer patients as demonstrated in five previous studies including one published yesterday in the online version of The Lancet Oncology," said Ruth Oratz, M.D., Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, and lead author of the study. "As someone who has used Oncotype DX for treatment planning with both node-negative and node-positive breast cancer patients, I believe this test is becoming standard practice for individualizing treatment in early stage breast cancer."

In this survey of 160 patients with node-positive disease, median age was 61 years and 79 percent of patients were postmenopausal. Patients had either stage T1 (62 percent), T2 (35 percent) or T3 (3 percent) disease. One, two, three or four or more positive lymph nodes were reported in 69 percent, 18 percent, 6 percent and 3 percent of patients, respectively. Therefore, physicians reported use of the Oncotype DX Recurrence Score?® result to plan treatment for node-positive disease most often in patients with 1-3 positive nodes and stage T1 or T2 disease.

"Results from this survey of current practice patterns indicate that oncologists who order Oncotype DX for patients with node-positive breast cancer use the results in a similar manner as they do for node-negative patients," said Steven Shak, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of Genomic Health.

SOURCE Genomic Health