BARCELONA—Breast cancer patients with the chromosome enumeration probe 17 (CEP17) alpha satellite abnormality are more likely to have good outcomes from chemotherapy involving anthracycline antibiotics than women without the abnormality, according to new data released at the Seventh European Breast Cancer Conference.

John Bartlett, MD, with the University of Edinburgh in Scotland presented the results of a meta-analysis of four adjuvant breast cancer trials that enrolled a total of nearly 3000 women.

Women with CEP17 tumors that were treated with anthracyclines were roughly two thirds more likely to survive without recurrent cancer than those who did not receive anthracyclines. Recurrence-free survival was 67%, and overall survival was 63%.

Prior research by the same investigators had shown that duplication of CEP17 predicts sensitivity to anthracyclines. “CEP17 can be readily assessed in fluorescent in situ hybridization analysis of human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 [HER2] status and may represent a clinically useful biomarker for the selection of patients likely to benefit from anthracycline-containing therapies,” Bartlett pointed out.

He added that the research is important because there has been conflicting evidence on the best way to predict response to anthracyclines and because it has not been clear whether any of the known biomarkers like HER2 and topoisomerase 2 alpha were accurate indicators of response to these drugs.