The Recurrence Score (RS) is a genomic assay result—most commonly from the Oncotype DX test—used to assess the risk of distant recurrence in patients with early-stage, hormone receptor-positive (ER+/PR+), HER2-negative breast cancer.
- Purpose:
- Quantifies the likelihood of cancer recurrence within 10 years after initial surgery.
- Predicts potential benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy in addition to endocrine therapy.
- Helps tailor treatment decisions to avoid unnecessary chemotherapy.
- How It Works:
- Measures expression levels of 21 genes in tumor tissue.
- Generates a score from 0 to 100.
- Categorizes patients into low, intermediate, or high risk based on validated cutoff values.
- Clinical Application:
- Low RS (0–10): Low risk; endocrine therapy alone is usually sufficient.
- Intermediate RS (11–25): Chemotherapy benefit uncertain; decisions individualized based on patient and tumor characteristics.
- High RS (>25): Higher risk; chemotherapy plus endocrine therapy recommended.
- Significance:
- Improves personalized oncology care by integrating tumor biology with clinical factors.
- Reduces overtreatment and spares patients from chemotherapy toxicity when unlikely to benefit.