Breast Cancer Guidelines Add Raloxifene and Urge Caution With Lab Testing and MRI Screening

Allison Gandey

April 2, 2007 — New breast cancer recommendations take recent data into account and include raloxifene for postmenopausal women with lobular carcinoma. The latest guidelines, presented at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) 12th Annual Conference in Hollywood, Florida, also flag the potential dangers of using laboratory testing as the sole determinant for therapy and relying too heavily on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Presenting at the meeting, John Ward, MD, from the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City, told attendees that significant variability and lack of standardization on how assays are performed and reported raise significant concerns about accuracy. "Laboratory tests that are the sole determinant for therapy selection pose a significant challenge to pathologists performing them and to oncologists who must interpret the results for clinical decisions," he said. One of Dr. Ward's slides quipped that the pathologist now wears a stethoscope, too.