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BRCA1 mRNA Expression Levels Predict for Overall Survival in Ovarian Cancer after Chemotherapy

Author's Affiliation: Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast, United Kingdom

Requests for reprints: D. Paul Harkin, Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen's University of Belfast, 97, Lisburn Road, Belfast BT9 7BL, United Kingdom. Phone: 44-28-9097-2760; Fax: 44-28-9097-2776; E-mail: d.harkin{at}qub.ac.uk.

Purpose: We investigated whether BRCA1 mRNA expression levels may represent a biomarker of survival in sporadic epithelial ovarian cancer following chemotherapy treatment.

Experimental Design: The effect of loss of BRCA1 expression on chemotherapy response in ovarian cancer was measured in vitro using dose inhibition assays and Annexin V flow cytometry. Univariate and multivariate analyses were done to evaluate the relationship between BRCA1 mRNA expression levels and survival after chemotherapy treatment in 70 fresh frozen ovarian tumors.

Results: We show that inhibition of endogenous BRCA1 expression in ovarian cancer cell lines results in increased sensitivity to platinum therapy and decreased sensitivity to antimicrotubule agents. In addition, we show that patients with low/intermediate levels of BRCA1 mRNA have a significantly improved overall survival following treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy in comparison with patients with high levels of BRCA1 mRNA (57.2 versus 18.2 months; P = 0.0017; hazard ratio, 2.9). Furthermore, overall median survival for higher-BRCA1-expressing patients was found to increase following taxane-containing chemotherapy (23.0 versus 18.2 months; P = 0.12; hazard ratio, 0.53).

Conclusions: We provide evidence to support a role for BRCA1 mRNA expression as a predictive marker of survival in sporadic epithelial ovarian cancer.

Commentary

BRCA-1 in Sporadic Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: Lessons Learned from the Genetics of Hereditary Disease

Stephen A. Cannistra
Clin. Cancer Res. 2007 13: 7225-7227. [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. A. Cannistra BRCA-1 in Sporadic Epithelial Ovarian Cancer: Lessons Learned from the Genetics of Hereditary Disease Clin. Cancer Res., December 15, 2007; 13(24): 7225 - 7227. [Full Text] [PDF]