Has Anyone Had the Test for Recurrence after 10 years?

Anonymous · December 2014

My onc is sending in my 2007 tissue from my tumor for the new test that determines if I will have a recurrence after 10 years. Has anyone else had this test? He says its very new.

RebzAmy · December 2014

Wow never heard of that - how interesting that they can do that. I'm not sure now that I would actually want to know. What sort of breast cancer did you have and was it hormonal or HER2+?

voraciousreader · December 2014

http://www.biotheranostics.com/healthcare-professi...

voraciousreader · December 2014

https://www.genomeweb.com/clinical-genomics/biothe...

voraciousreader · December 2014

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/775807

JohnSmith · December 2014

I assume you recorded the conversation with your MO.
Can you review the recording and let us know the name of the test?

voraciousreader · December 2014

John...the test is the BCI.

voraciousreader · December 2014

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25295793

farmerlucy · December 2014

Would there be any point in doing this if one had the oncotypedx? Thought?

voraciousreader · December 2014

farmer...

http://www.biotheranostics.com/about/press-room/he...

Anonymous · December 2014

Voracious...

Thanks so much. This is extremely interesting. I am now on my 8th year on Arimidex and this test may give me more information on staying on longer.

Melissa

farmerlucy · December 2014

VR - Fascinating. Thanks so much for all your hard work in keeping us up to date on new information. You are amazing!

Meow13 · December 2014

I wanted to see if the new symphony test could be done on my tumor. I called them and they said my 2011 sample would be too old but I wasn't speaking with a physician. I just read about the BC I test. I will ask my MO.

JohnSmith · December 2014

I researched BCI 6 months ago. I asked if others had done it and the response was deafening silence.

If the original poster is referring to BCI, it's important to note that they do not have a test that determines if you will have a recurrence after 10 years. The test claims to predict up to 10 years.

Also, for the original poster, testing a 2007 tumor sample to determine if they will have a recurrence by the year 2017 seems debatable. That's ~2 years from now. Certainly, this test would be more relevant to others who were more recently diagnosed and are willing to drop a lot of money on a test that insurance will not pay for.

Does your insurance pay for a test that is not FDA approved?

Don't get me wrong... I love the idea of this assay, but until the FDA signs off on it, very few have done it.

Finally, why isn't this test approved?
Is it still too new? Is it considered experimental, unproven, unreliable?
Being a French owned company, do they lack the political connections in government to get clearance?

There certainly seems to be more noise of newer genomic assays, such as these two:
1. Prosigna, PAM50 (50 genes) by NanoString Technologies [Ticker: NSTG]. www.prosigna.com
2. MammaPrint (70 genes), by privately held, Agendia. www.agendia.com

doxie · December 2014

I think that having the test even as nearing 10 years may give valuable information in light of no information. If your tumor scored high, it might be worth while continuing on an AI for another few years beyond 10. I suspect that as this current cohort of BC patients on AI progress, the research results for length of time on AIs will grow depending on tumor characteristics.

Having an Oncotype test for your ER+ tumor, even if you initially chose to make a decision for or against chemo w/o the test , gives you information on how critical it is to stay on AIs or SERMs over a 5 year period. For example, a score of 20 vs a score of 5 has significance in terms of actual % of reduction with antihormonals.

Anonymous · December 2014

To Everyone, thanks so much for the discussion. Discussion is what I love on this website. Just some more info, I am getting the BCI test free. Although if given the option, I would pay for it. I love research and stats. I was one of the first on this website to discuss the Oncotype test. Now it is accepted as science.

Doxie, I agree with you. Your discussion is "spot on."

Keep discussing!

voraciousreader · December 2014

John....since you did your research on BCI test, in October, Medicare approved it. AND, if anyone had it prior to October, they will retroactively cover the expense. This is big news, because private insurers look to Medicare coverage when formulating their payments...

Anonymous · December 2014

Voracious... I love you!! Great info.

Anonymous · December 2014

I just received my BCI score of 5.3. This is Intermediate risk and shows that I will receive benefit from extending my endocrine therapy for a total of 10 years. I have already completed 7 years so I will be doing 3 more years. I am so glad that I took this test because it validates the benefit of staying on the AIs for 10 years.

Has anyone else taken the test? I had the test free of charge. BTW, my Oncotype score was 11.

Anonymous · January 2015

You can review the information for BCI at http://www.biotheranostics.com/wp-content/uploads/BTXBCI_149_BCI%20Updated%20CVA_v18_fnl.pdf.

The fact that caught my attention is over 50% of recurrences happen after the 5th year and 4-5 % of women will benefit from extended endocrine therapy. This test may save lives. The statistic is similar to the 3-5% that can be helped by chemo.

coraleliz · January 2015

Aug24- my guess is you are tolerating the AI fairly well. I looked at the biotheranostics website & you are barely in the intermediate range. The low cutoff is 5.1. The graph did remind me of the oncotype graph.

As for me, I have completed just over 3yrs on Tamoxifen, still premeno. It has not been a SE free ride for me. Although I have positive nodes, my oncotype was 4. Perhaps in the next couple of years this test will be validated for node positive women. For me to continue past 5yrs, I'd have to see a bigger number. Not sure what that number would have to be. Guess I have time to figure it out.

Has Anyone Had the Test for Recurrence after 10 years?

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