Dr. Piccart Discusses Biomarkers in Early Breast Cancer

Martine J. Piccart, MD, PhD, professor, Université Libre de Bruxelles, director, Medicine Department, Institut Jules Bordet, discusses biomarkers in early breast cancer.

Piccart says that a big weakness of translational research in early breast cancer is the thought that looking at a myriad of different biomarkers before treatment will predict which patients will respond best. This approach, she adds, does not take into account the metabolism of the drug—as different people do not handle drugs the same way.

There are new models in place that take into consideration the patients’ reaction to a given drug, which will potentially be able to predict which patients will experience favorable outcomes with that drug. Piccart says that this will allow for smaller, more specific adjuvant trials in the future.