One of the most well-known meetings of breast cancer care experts is the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, which takes place every December. It’s an important venue where thousands of oncologists and other breast cancer specialists from all over the world come together to share the latest updates about diagnostics, treatment, prevention, and more.

At Myriad Genetics, we have been fortunate to be part of the San Antonio meeting for many years. After all, our very first genetic test focused on assessing a woman’s inherited risk of breast cancer. Decades later, we continue to improve and expand upon our tests for women who have breast cancer, or who have a family history of breast cancer.

This year, we were honored to have the opportunity to present results from two new studies at the symposium, each of which has immediate utility for breast cancer practitioners and their patients.

Breast Cancer Risk Prediction

As you may know, the Myriad Genetics team has spent years working to improve the results of genetic testing for breast cancer risk to ensure that people of all ancestries receive accurate, reliable, and actionable information. At the San Antonio meeting, we reported findings from a study of more than 130,000 women. By analyzing clinical data collected over time and comparing how our new model of breast cancer risk compared to the standard of care risk assessment, we demonstrated that the additional genetic information in our new approach was more accurate at stratifying women at high-risk or low-risk of developing breast cancer than a standard of care risk assessment. This is critical information that can help physicians and patients understand when earlier or more frequent screening could be used to help save lives, and it’s available now through our MyRisk™ with RiskScore^® test.

Breast Cancer Treatment Guidance

When patients are diagnosed with breast cancer, there are many different treatment options available — some with serious side effects that would ideally only be used for people who truly need them. We offer a test that helps to identify cases of breast cancer that are unlikely to spread or recur that chemotherapy can safely be avoided. In a study conducted in collaboration with both Charité University Hospital Berlin and University Hospital Marburg, researchers used our EndoPredict test to analyze breast cancer samples from more than 800 women. They found that results generated by the test were a significant predictor of a patients’ risk of breast cancer recurrence, and that women identified as low-risk did not have worse outcomes when they skipped chemotherapy. This study provides evidence that aggressive treatment is not necessary for certain cases of breast cancer, and that genetic testing can help guide the appropriate selection of treatment for each patient.

The Myriad Genetics team continues to team up with scientific and clinical collaborators to conduct important studies of how genetic testing can contribute to better health outcomes. Stay tuned and we will report findings as they become available!