More accurate breast cancer test could be available in two years

A study led by University College Dublin (UCD), the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and OncoMark Limited found that the OncoMasTR test offers greater accuracy than other currently available tests or risk assessment tools.

A new breast cancer test, offering a more accurate prediction of the risk of the disease recurring, could become available to patients in the next two years.

A study led by University College Dublin (UCD), the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and OncoMark Limited found that the OncoMasTR test offers greater accuracy than other currently available tests or risk assessment tools.

The OncoMasTR test can identify the risk of recurrence in early stage hormone-receptor-positive or oestrogen-positive breast cancer, which accounts for around 80% of all breast cancers.

The study, published in the European Journal of Cancer this month, used the test to detect particular genetic markers in more than 400 breast cancer patients across 11 Irish hospitals to determine if they had a ‘high’ or ‘low’ risk of the disease returning.

By more accurately predicting the risk of cancer recurring, the test will help clinicians and patients to decide whether chemotherapy is required or not.

The new test is not available to clinicians or patients yet but the “next-generation” diagnostic tool could supersede the currently available Oncotype DX test, which has been used for more than two decades and is carried out in the US.

Ireland was one of the first countries in Europe to make the Oncotype DX test available as a tool to assess the risk of cancer recurrence.

UCD Professor of Cancer Biology, William Gallagher, one of the lead investigators in the study who was involved in developing the technology, said the new test had been shown to be more accurate and could offer a more cost-effective option in the future.

“The test that we have developed is a more cost-effective test, a more accurate test, and it can be carried out in a local hospital,” Professor Gallagher said.

There’s a potential benefit if the test can be carried out in local hospital laboratories, in terms of getting results more quickly and reducing anxiety for those waiting for test results.

The test, Professor Gallagher said, would also remove a “grey zone” that exists for breast cancer patients who fall into an ‘intermediate’ risk category using existing tests: “It will remove that grey zone and categorise the risk of recurrence as low or high with a greater degree of accuracy.” 

The new test could become available in the next two years. 

“We have brought the technology to a certain stage of validation and I’d expect that the test will be out there in the clinical environment within the next year to two years.”