For most women, hot flashes, fatigue, joint pain, and other side effects of antiestrogen therapy significantly impact quality of life. Antiestrogen therapies also increase the risk of osteoporosis (bone loss), blood clots, and other cancers.
The BCI test is useful for patients and physicians to make important decisions about antiestrogen therapy, including the duration of treatment.
BCI test results predict the following:
- The individual’s overall risk (0 to 10 years after diagnosis) that the treated cancer will come back in another part of the body (metastatic recurrence)
- The individual late risk (5 to 10 years after diagnosis) of a metastatic recurrence
- Whether long-term antiestrogen therapy (more than five years) is useful in reducing the risk of late recurrence
Previously, BCI testing was performed five years after diagnosis to determine the risk of late recurrence and whether prolonged antiestrogen therapy would be helpful in reducing this risk. As part of the new expanded BCI alternative, the test can now be performed earlier, immediately after diagnosis or in the early stages of treatment, to provide more information useful for doctors and patients to determine a personalized treatment plan from the outset.
For example, for those at sufficiently low risk, it may be advisable to consider a less aggressive treatment plan. For postmenopausal women, this could mean that anti-estrogen therapies need to last for a shorter period of time. And postmenopausal women who are at minimal risk may not need to undergo ovarian suppression.