Exact Sciences – Oncotype DX ® Test Can Help Certain Types of Breast Cancer Avoid Chemotherapy

Dr. Jean-Francois Boileau, MD, MSc, FRCSC, surgical oncologist  at Jewish General Hospital Segal Cancer Centre; associate professor of surgery and oncology at McGill University; and director of the JGH Breast Clinical Trials Group discusses the publication of the RxPONDER trial in the “New England Journal of Medicine” that confirms that tens of thousands of women with a certain type of breast cancer can avoid chemotherapy with Exact Sciences‘ Oncotype DX ® Test.   These results, together with the foundational TAILORx results in node-negative, early-stage breast cancer, further elevate the test to a standard of care in a broader patient population. NCCN guidelines have also followed suit and now recognize the Oncotype DX test as the only genomic test that can be used for the prediction of chemotherapy benefits in both node-negative and postmenopausal node-positive women.   

Jean-François Boileau, MD, MSc, FRCSC. Dr. Boileau is an associate professor in the Departments of Surgery and Gerald Bronfman Oncology at McGill University. He is a surgical oncologist and clinician scientist at the Montreal Jewish General Segal Cancer Centre. He held previous positions at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Montreal (CHUM) and at the Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre (University of Toronto).  He is currently the head of the Jewish General Hospital Breast Clinical Trials Group and a founding member of the Quebec McPeak-Sirois Clinical Trials Consortium. He is an author on the neoadjuvant breast PALLET (CDK 4/6) & KRISTINE (T-DM1) trials published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology & Lancet Oncology.  Dr. Boileau is the Principle Investigator of the SN FNAC study (Journal of Clinical Oncology) that has helped to establish sentinel node biopsy as an acceptable method to re-stage the axilla of node positive breast cancer patients after neoadjuvant therapy. As an early adopter of immediate pre-pectoral reconstruction, he has also developed a recognized expertise in skin and nipple sparing anatomical mastectomy.