Can genetic testing for germline mutations impact cancer care of women with recently diagnosed breast cancer?

The concept of personalized medicine has rapidly become a major part of breast cancer care. It relies on complex biological evaluations and predictions of both the prognostic and the specific treatment sensitivity of a single tumor and a single individual. Germline genetics can currently provide information that appears complementary to that provided by somatic analyses, regarding local and general prognosis of the current cancer and also subsequent cancer risk. In the next few years, germline genetic data should also have a major role to play in the evaluation of potential sensitivity to medical treatments (treatments targeting DNA repair such as the recently emerging PARP inhibitors), and therefore guide major treatment choices. This paper summarizes current existing data regarding the potential impact of germline genetics in the personalized care of breast cancer patients in 2010 and the evolutions expected in the coming years.