已經(jīng)研制開(kāi)發(fā)的幾種基因表達(dá)檢測(cè)方法，能夠?qū)Π┌Y患者進(jìn)行預(yù)測(cè)，特別是乳腺癌，但是檢測(cè)發(fā)現(xiàn)設(shè)計(jì)的基因很少有重疊，目前尚不清楚這些不同檢測(cè)方法的明顯區(qū)別。

個(gè)體腫瘤基因活性能夠作為預(yù)測(cè)因子，諸如腫瘤的侵襲性，對(duì)不同治療的反應(yīng)，是否會(huì)復(fù)發(fā)或者擴(kuò)散。為了比較不同基因檢測(cè)方法的預(yù)測(cè)價(jià)值，北卡羅來(lái)那州大學(xué)(UNC)醫(yī)學(xué)院(Chapel Hill, NC, USA)基因和病理學(xué)助理教授Charles M. Perou醫(yī)生和他的同事，研究了5種不同預(yù)測(cè)因子的一致性，這些因子被應(yīng)用在能夠得到患者生存資料的295例腫瘤樣本中。

在2006年8月10日《新英格蘭醫(yī)學(xué)期刊》上，研究人員指出4種預(yù)測(cè)因子，在個(gè)體乳腺癌患者的轉(zhuǎn)歸預(yù)測(cè)方面，顯示出"顯著的一致性"，盡管很少有基因重疊。其中3種預(yù)測(cè)因子一致性最高，兩種是商品化的檢測(cè)方法，正在用于指導(dǎo)臨床試驗(yàn)。
 
Gene-Expression Assays for Breast Cancer Concur
 
A number of gene-expression assays have been developed that appear to be predictive for cancer patients, especially breast cancer patients, but tests show very little overlap in the genes involved and it is not known how distinct these different assays might be.

Activity patterns in the genes of individual tumors can be predictors of how likely the tumors are to be invasive, how well they might respond to different treatments, and how likely they are to recur or spread. To compare the individual predictions made by different genomic tests, Dr. Charles M. Perou, assistant professor of genetics and pathology at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine (Chapel Hill, NC, USA), and colleagues studied the concordance of five different predictors that were all applied to a single data set of 295 tumor samples for which patient survival data were available.

Writing in the August 10, 2006, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers note that four predictors showed "significant agreement" in their outcome predictions on individual breast cancer patients, despite having little gene overlap. Of the three predictors showing the greatest concordance, two were the main assays that are commercially available and being used to guide clinical trials.