# RxPONDER (SWOG S1007)

Source: https://onco.cc/trials/rxponder/  
OnCo record `rxponder` (Trial). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Postmenopausal women with a few positive lymph nodes and a low gene-test score can skip chemotherapy; premenopausal women still benefit from it.

## Summary

RxPONDER, SWOG trial S1007, NCT01272037, sponsored by SWOG and the NCI and reported in 2020, showed that postmenopausal women with one to three positive lymph nodes and a low Oncotype DX recurrence score can skip chemotherapy, while premenopausal women still benefit from it. Among 5,083 women with HR-positive, HER2-negative disease and scores of 25 or below, chemotherapy added nothing to endocrine therapy in the 3,350 postmenopausal women but improved invasive disease-free survival in the 1,665 premenopausal women, a benefit possibly mediated by chemotherapy-induced ovarian suppression. OnCo links it to Oncotype DX, the ovarian function suppression term, the gene-assay-to-chemotherapy-omission pairing, Kathy S. Albain and Kevin Kalinsky. Whether ovarian suppression alone could replace chemotherapy in younger women is being tested in NRG-BR009, known as OFSET.

## Fields

- Kind: Trial
- Status: positive
- Last checked: 2026-09-07
- Registry id: NCT01272037
- Phase: 3
- Setting: HR+/HER2- breast cancer with 1-3 positive nodes and recurrence score ≤25: endocrine therapy alone vs chemo-endocrine therapy
- Sponsor: SWOG / NCI
- Enrolled: 5018
- Result: No chemo benefit postmenopausal; iDFS HR 0.60 with chemo premenopausal.
- Outcomes: 5-year iDFS, postmenopausal: Endocrine alone 91.9% vs Chemo-endocrine 91.3%, HR 1.02; 5-year iDFS, premenopausal: Endocrine alone 89% vs Chemo-endocrine 93.9%, HR 0.6
- Replication: Consistent with TAILORx age interaction; the OFS-vs-chemotherapy question is being tested prospectively (NRG-BR009 / OFSET).

## Sources

- ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01272037: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT01272037

## Connected records

- cancers: [High-risk early HR-positive breast cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/hr-positive-early-high-risk/), [HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/breast-hr-positive/)
- technologies: [Gene-expression prognostic assays](https://onco.cc/technologies/gene-expression-prognostic-assays/), [RNA sequencing & expression profiling](https://onco.cc/technologies/rna-seq/)
- drugs: [Oncotype DX](https://onco.cc/drugs/oncotype-dx/)
- companies: [SWOG Cancer Research Network](https://onco.cc/companies/swog/)
- people: [Kathy S. Albain](https://onco.cc/people/kathy-albain/), [Kevin Kalinsky](https://onco.cc/people/kevin-kalinsky/)
- key papers: [21-Gene Assay to Inform Chemotherapy Benefit in Node-Positive Breast Cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-rxponder-n-engl-j-med-2021/)
- terms: [Enrichment and biomarker-stratified designs](https://onco.cc/terms/biomarker-stratified-design/), [Ovarian function suppression (OFS)](https://onco.cc/terms/ovarian-function-suppression/), [Subgroup analysis (forest plots)](https://onco.cc/terms/subgroup-analysis/)
- pairings: [Gene-expression assay → chemotherapy omission](https://onco.cc/pairings/genomic-assay-to-chemo-omission/)
- ideas: [A formal regulatory route for validating a biomarker on archived trial samples](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-tr2-prospective-retrospective-path/)
- institutions: [Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University](https://onco.cc/institutions/emory-winship/)
- roadmaps: [Chemotherapy roadmap: mustard gas → curative combinations → the warhead inside smarter drugs](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/chemotherapy-roadmap/), [Diagnostics roadmap: stains → gene panels → blood tests that decide treatment](https://onco.cc/roadmaps/diagnostics-roadmap/)

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