Prof Robert Coleman from Weston Park Hospital, University of Sheffield, UK, shares with ecancer his thoughts on the implications for clinicians and breast cancer patients of the recent approval by the UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence of the Oncotype DX genomic test. The test is used in people with oestrogen receptor positive, lymph node negative early breast cancer with an intermediate risk of the cancer spreading, to predict how a tumour will grow and spread.

He also gives some insight into possible future developments in the fast-growing area of genomic testing, in terms of the information it will provide on which patients need treatment and the type of treatment they should receive.