Figure 2

Outline of implementation strategies in the clinic. Different layers of assessment of patient and tumor characteristics for treatment decision-making are shown in this schematic figure. The basis is made up of clinical staging and histopathology including important molecular markers, including estrogen (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR), HER-2 and Ki67, to categorize patients into pathological subgroups. As the resulting subgroups are heterogeneous, different molecular assays should be applied within these. Host characteristics important to the choice of treatment and optimization of dosage should be evaluated in parallel. In monitoring treatment response personalized biomarkers should be examined.