Prognostic molecular assays on the rise for non-small cell lung cancer

Multigene expression assays have become a popular technique for both basic research and clinical studies. Besides generating hypotheses, this approach is often used in oncology to improve prognostication of patients' outcome based on specific gene expression profiles. Thereby outcome may refer to overall survival, disease-free survival or prediction of response to a defined treatment. Microarray technology has caused enthusiasm for its potential to identify biomarkers for cancer outcome, but at the same time the reproducibility and validity of findings based on such data are often challenged. For women with early stage breast cancer, a commercially available multigene expression assay has been found potentially useful as an option to predict whether certain patients will benefit from chemotherapy (1).