Genomic Health, the maker of the Oncotype DX test, told HCB News that it found the research interesting but stressed that the Breast Cancer Recurrence Score Estimator is based on factors that are often known to be variable from site to site, and was not directly designed or validated to predict key actual breast cancer outcomes, like chemotherapy benefit.

"Conversely," said the Genomic Health spokesperson, "there is an unprecedented amount of clinical evidence in tens of thousands of patients demonstrating the clinical utility and cost-⁠effectiveness of the standardized Oncotype DX test to accurately inform patient and physician treatment decision-⁠making based on individual tumor biology."


The app may not change the total number of molecular tests ordered at any particular hospital, according to the researchers, but it may shift ordering of the tests to cases where pathology measures are more ambiguous.

“We hope our findings will help clinicians as they strive toward improving patient care and outcomes,” they said.

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