Scientific Poster and Symposium at Miami Breast Cancer Conference Demonstrate Value of MammaPrint and BluePrint Tests Compared to First-Generation Test

IRVINE, CA and AMSTERDAM - A scientific poster comparing Agendia's MammaPrint® and BluePrint® tests to the 21-gene test, found that for a large group of women with breast cancer, molecular subtyping with the Agendia tests provides more accurate information about the risk of disease recurrence.

The poster results are believed to be the first head-to-head comparison that explains discordance (lack of agreement) between different kinds of genomic tests for breast cancer. Many patients in the study who were classified by the first-generation 21-gene test as being at low risk of recurrence were discovered to in fact be at high risk of recurrence by MammaPrint. Of those patients classified as low risk by the first-generation test but high risk by the next-generation MammaPrint test, most of them were determined to be the Luminal B subtype by the Agendia molecular subtyping assay BluePrint. That category conveys a significantly higher risk of disease recurrence that is not identified by the first-generation test.
Additionally, by adding information about the molecular subtype of the cancer, it was also shown that a proportion of IHC hormone receptor positive patients demonstrated either a predominant Her-2-type or basal-like molecular signature that may partially explain why some patients fail to benefit from endocrine therapy.

The research poster was authored by Steven C. Shivers, Ph.D., Charles E. Cox, M.D., at the University of South Florida (USF), and others. It was presented at the recently concluded Miami Breast Cancer Conference, held March 6-9. The conference also featured a lunchtime symposium that discussed favorable new research about MammaPrint and BluePrint.

"Molecular subtyping can help oncologists and surgeons personalize and improve each patient's individual treatment for breast cancer," said Peter Blumencranz, M.D. a poster co-author. "In this research, we saw that a substantial number of breast cancer patients, who had been identified as being low risk by the earlier genomic test, were in fact at high risk of recurrence. We learned this by using molecular subtyping to stratify these patients, determining that most of them were of the Luminal B subtype and therefore at higher risk of recurrence." Dr. Blumencranz is the Medical Director of Comprehensive Breast Program and Cancer Services for Morton Plant Mease Health Care, and Medical Director of Moffitt-Morton Plant Mease Cancer Care.

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