OPTIMA Results Presented at ASCO: A Major Step Forward in Personalised Breast Cancer Treatment

Important results from the OPTIMA study were presented at ASCO, marking a significant step forward in more personalised treatment for early breast cancer.

OPTIMA -“Optimal Personalised Treatment of early breast cancer using Multi-parameter Analysis”  is a large Phase III clinical trial that aims to determine whether specialised gene-expression laboratory tests can safely identify which patients with early-stage, ER-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer truly need chemotherapy, and which can safely avoid it.  

Outcomes were very similar whether or not chemotherapy was given: 94.8% of patients receiving chemotherapy plus hormone therapy were alive and free from breast cancer recurrence at five years, compared with 93.6% of those receiving hormone therapy alone. These findings reinforce the clinical value of genomic testing to determine personalized treatment, by identifying patients unlikely to gain meaningful additional benefit from chemotherapy, helping to spare many from unnecessary toxicity while maintaining excellent outcomes.

Europa Donna is proud to provide the patient perspective as consortium member of the Path-for-Young project, carrying out the OPTIMA YOUNG clinical trial.  OPTIMA YOUNG builds directly on the success of the OPTIMA trial, whose practice-changing results were highlighted at ASCO 2026. While OPTIMA showed that genomic testing can identify many patients with ER-positive, HER2-negative early breast cancer who can safely avoid chemotherapy, OPTIMA YOUNG extends this personalized approach to younger, premenopausal women, aiming to ensure that treatment decisions are equally precise and tailored for this important patient population.

PATH4YOUNG is co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101156800.