Novel Two-Gene Ratio Found to Be a Prognostic Indicator of Breast Cancer Recurrence Risk

AviaraDx reported that a study conducted in collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine further demonstrated the clinical utility of two novel genes for the identification of patients at higher risk for early breast cancer recurrence. This study has been published in the October issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The 852-patient retrospective study confirms the original discovery of the two-gene ratio of HOXB13/IL17BR (H/I) as an independent prognostic marker for risk of recurrence in tamoxifen-treated, estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) and lymph node-negative patients. The study results also extend the prognostic utility of the H/I ratio to untreated patients. Therefore, it has been established that the H/I ratio is a strong independent prognostic marker in patients with or without antihormonal treatment, according to AviaraDx.

”The study with Baylor College of Medicine is the third in a series of clinical studies conducted to validate the clinical utility of the H/I ratio as a very significant prognostic biomarker in ER+ breast cancer patients,” says Antonius Schuh, CEO of AviaraDx. “We are excited about the rapidly growing body of evidence supporting the clinical utility of HOXB13 and IL17BR in the prediction of breast cancer recurrence risk and expect additional clinical data to be published in the near future.”

AviaraDx discovered both biomarkers in a collaborative study with Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, which was published in the June 2004 issue of Cancer Cell. In April of 2006 a collaborative study with Mayo Clinic, showing significant clinical utility of H/I in patients treated with tamoxifen, was published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.