[Prognostic and predictive factors for endocrine treatment in breast carcinoma]

There is a long tradition for defining prognostic factors in breast carcinoma; the classic ones being lymphnode status, tumor size, malignancy grade, and hormone receptor status. More important are the detection of predictive factors, defined as factors in the tumor which predict the effect of a certain treatment. The hormone receptors are a classic example of predictive factors for determining whether patients should be offered endocrine treatment. New predictive factors are HER2 for predicting the effect of trastuzumab and TOP2A for predicting the effect of certain chemotherapies.