By improving the accuracy of breast cancer tumour grading, MapQuant Dx Genomic Grade could spare tens of thousands chemotherapy treatments per year
Ipsogen is entering the breast cancer diagnostic market with the European launch of MapQuant Dx Genomic Grade.
MapQuant Dx Genomic Grade is the very first molecular diagnostic test to accurately measure tumour grade, a consensus indicator of tumour proliferation, risk of metastasis and response to chemotherapy.
Histological tumour grading is considered a decision factor in most national and international guidelines to breast cancer treatment.
While it is generally recommended to treat high-grade "grade 3" breast carcinoma with chemotherapy because they are chemosensitive and will often recur otherwise.
By contrast, most low-grade "grade 1" tumours should not be treated with chemotherapy because they have a good prognosis and are often chemo-insensitive.
A key clinical issue is how to treat the 50% of breast cancers tested today as uncertain/intermediate "grade 2" by current methods - based on the visual examination of tumor sections under the microscope.
MapQuant Dx Genomic Grade test directly measures the expression of the 97 genes that best characterise high-grade vs low-grade tumours.
It can resolve these "grade 2" tumours into either "grade 1" or "grade 3" tumours in 80 % of cases.
MapQuant Dx Genomic Grade test is especially useful when tumour grade information can be decisive for prescribing a chemotherapy.
According to most guidelines, this is the case for hormone-sensitive (ER+) node-negative (N-) invasive breast carcinoma.
"In these patients, most grade 2 tumours are treated by chemotherapy and hormonotherapy.
"It is expected that MapQuant Dx Genomic Grade test downgrades 70% of grade 2 tumours to grade 1.
"This would represent about 50,000 spared chemotherapies in Europe and USA annually" said Jean-Marc Le Doussal, director of the breast cancer programme at Ipsogen.
"MapQuant Dx Genomic Grade demonstrates our commitment to address clinicians' needs by translating the genomic profile of each tumour into reliable, intelligible and decisive information for pathologists, oncologists and patients." said Vincent Fert, president and CEO of Ipsogen.
