The invention relates to methods and kits for the prediction of a likely outcome of chemotherapy in a cancer patient. More specifically, the invention relates to the prediction of tumour response to chemotherapy based on measurements of expression levels of a small set of marker genes. The set of marker genes is useful for the identification of breast cancer subtypes responsive to taxane based chemotherapy, such as e.g. a taxane-anthracycline-cyclophosphamide-based (e.g. Taxotere (docetaxel)-Adriamycin (doxorubicin)-cyclophosphamide, i.e. (TAC)-based) chemotherapy.