PREDICTIVE TEST FOR SELECTION OF METASTATIC BREAST CANCER PATIENTS FOR HORMONAL AND COMBINATION THERAPY

摘要

A mass-spectral method is disclosed for determining whether a post-menopausal, HER2-negative breast cancer patient is likely to benefit from administration of a combination treatment in the form of administration of a targeted anti-cancer drug in addition to an endocrine therapy drug. The method obtains a mass spectrum from a blood-based sample from the patient. Values of selected features in the spectrum at one or more predefined m/z ranges are obtained. The values are used in a classification algorithm using a training set comprising class-labeled spectra produced from samples from other cancer patients and a class label for the sample is obtained. If the class label is "Poor," the patient is identified as being likely to benefit from the combination treatment. The "Poor" class label is used to predict whether a breast cancer patient is unlikely to benefit from endocrine therapy drugs alone, regardless of the patient's HER2 status.