Improving quality of early breast cancer care with a predictive test for taxane response.

146 Background: Patients (pts) with high-risk early breast cancer (BC) frequently have adjuvant taxane (TAX) treatment, but only 22% experience benefits in disease-free survival and many experience toxicities which impact quality of life (QoL) and increase costs. Research is underway to develop biomarkers which predict TAX response and hence identify pts who will benefit from the regimen and pts who will not, avoiding futile treatment and associated toxicities. Methods: A predictive economic model estimated the potential avoided toxicities and related costs of testing 100 BC pts with a biomarker to guide therapy selection compared to no pretesting. The no biomarker test group all received AC-T (AC-T) (doxorubicin 60mg/m2, cyclophosphamide 600mg/m2, followed by weekly paclitaxel 80mg/m2) for 12 weeks ($572). The model included rates and costs of 3 associated side effects (average $2024/patient): neutropenia (14%), thrombocytopenia (1%), and peripheral neuropathy (1%). In comparison, all pts were biomarker ...