Validation of the GenesWell BCT Score in Young Asian Women With HR+/HER2- Early Breast Cancer

Mi Jeong Kwon; Jai Min Ryu; Soo Youn Cho; Seok Jin Nam; Seok Won Kim; Jeeyeon Lee; Soo Jung Lee; Ji-Young Park; Ho Yong Park; Sungjun Hong; Kyunga Kim; Jinil Han; Youngho Moon; Young Kee Shin; Jeong Eon Lee

doi:10.3389/fonc.2021.588728

Validation of the GenesWell BCT Score in Young Asian Women With HR+/HER2- Early Breast Cancer

Front Oncol. 2021 Feb 23:11:588728. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.588728. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Mi Jeong Kwon^{1

2}, Jai Min Ryu³, Soo Youn Cho⁴, Seok Jin Nam³, Seok Won Kim³, Jeeyeon Lee⁵, Soo Jung Lee⁶, Ji-Young Park⁷, Ho Yong Park⁵, Sungjun Hong⁸, Kyunga Kim^{8

9}, Jinil Han¹⁰, Youngho Moon¹⁰, Young Kee Shin^{11

12}, Jeong Eon Lee³

Affiliations

¹ Vessel-Organ Interaction Research Center, College of Pharmacy, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, South Korea.
² Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, South Korea.
³ Department of Surgery, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
⁴ Department of Pathology and Translational Genomics, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
⁵ Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital, Daegu, South Korea.
⁶ Department of Oncology/Hematology, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital, Daegu, South Korea.
⁷ Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital, Daegu, South Korea.
⁸ Department of Digital Health, Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Sciences & Technology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea.
⁹ Statistics and Data Center, Research Institute for Future Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea.
¹⁰ R&D Center, Gencurix Inc., Seoul, South Korea.
¹¹ Laboratory of Molecular Pathology and Cancer Genomics, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and College of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.
¹² Department of Molecular Medicine and Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.

Abstract

Background: The prognostic or predictive value of commonly used multigene assays in young patients with hormone receptor-positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2-) early breast cancer is unclear. In this study, we assessed the prognostic value of the GenesWell BCT assay according to age group.

Methods: We identified patients with pN0-1, HR+/HER2- breast cancer in a prospective cohort of women who underwent surgery between 2005 and 2017. The GenesWell BCT assay was performed on tissue samples from selected patients. Distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were compared between the risk groups assigned by the BCT score.

Results: A total of 712 patients were eligible for analysis. The median follow-up time was 7.47 years. The BCT score was prognostic in patients aged ≤50 years (n = 404) and those aged >50 years (n = 308). In both age groups, the 10-year DMFS and DFS rates for patients classified as high risk by the BCT score were significantly lower than those for patients classified as low risk. A multivariate analysis revealed that the BCT score was an independent prognostic factor for DFS in patients aged ≤50 years (hazard ratio, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.05-1.56; P = 0.015), as well as those aged >50 years.

Conclusion: The BCT score could be used to identify low-risk patients who will not benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy to treat HR+/HER2- early breast cancer regardless of age. A further prospective study to assess the prognostic and predictive value of the BCT score is required.

Keywords: BCT score; GenesWell BCT assay; HR+/HER2− early breast cancer; predictive value; prognostic value; young breast cancer patients.