Abstract 4247
Background
Despite ER positive IHC staining, some patients do not respond to neoadjuvant endocrine therapy, suggesting that ER staining lacks specificity to predict response. We developed a method to infer a quantitative signal transduction pathway activity score (PAS) from mRNA levels (microarray, qPCR) of pathway-associated transcription factor target genes. Initial studies suggest that ER PAS may have higher specificity than ER IHC in predicting endocrine therapy response. In this study, we correlated pre-treatment ER PAS and changes in ER PAS during neoadjuvant letrozole treatment to therapy response and DFS.
Methods
We collected fresh frozen RNA from tumor samples of 30 ER IHC positive post-menopausal patients with primary localized breast cancer, treated with neoadjuvant letrozole at Edinburgh Western General. In total, 30 pre, 25 mid (median 27 days), and 29 post-treatment (median 136 days) samples were analysed. Clinical outcome was assessed (RECIST, n = 29) at circa 3 months treatment by 3D ultrasound, with 1 complete (CR), 21 partial responses (PR), 2 stable (SD), and 5 progressive diseases (PD). Using RT-qPCR, target gene expression was measured for ER, androgen receptor, PI3K, Hedgehog, TGFβ and Wnt pathways. PAS were expressed on a normalized scale (0 to 100).
Results
Pre-treatment ER PAS was significantly higher in responders (CR/PR) than non-responders (SD/PD), PAS=45 vs 24, respectively, T-test p = 0.01. Pre-treatment ER PAS correlated with decrease in ER PAS during treatment (cor=0.87 and 0.7, mid and-post treatment, respectively). At mid-treatment, ER PAS of responders had decreased to PAS of non-responders (20 vs 19, respectively), remaining low during further treatment. Decrease in ER PAS was significantly higher in responders (-30) than non-responders (-6), p = 0.01. Higher ER PAS after treatment correlated to shorter DFS (COX proportional hazards p = 0.02). Baseline PAS of other pathways did not correlate with response, but changed significantly during treatment.
Conclusions
This study confirms that ER PAS in ER-positive patients, measured before and after neoadjuvant endocrine therapy, has potential to predict and assess therapy response, and predict DFS.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
Philips Electronics Nederland B.V., acting through its HealthWorks Molecular Pathway Dx.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
M. A. Inda: Full / Part-time employment: Philips Reseach. A. van de Stolpe: Full / Part-time employment, has Philips stocks: Philips Research. D. Keizer: Full / Part-time employment: Philips. D. Clout: Full / Part-time employment: Philips Reasearch. H. van Zon: Full / Part-time employment: Philips Reasearch. M. Akse: Full / Part-time employment: Philips. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
Resources from the same session
3716 - Prognostic factors for predicting early recurrence within the first year of surgery in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
Presenter: Naru Kim
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
3947 - Integrated population pharmacokinetic modelling of liposomal irinotecan in patients with various tumour types, including untreated metastatic pancreatic cancer (mPC)
Presenter: Teresa Macarulla
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
2880 - Expression of long noncoding RNA and clinical outcomes of pancreatic cancer patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy by S-1 or GEM after curative resection.
Presenter: Mariko Kamiya
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
5029 - POLO: Time to treatment discontinuation and subsequent therapies following maintenance olaparib for patients (pts) with a germline BRCA mutation and metastatic pancreatic cancer (mPC)
Presenter: Eric Van Cutsem
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
4730 - Diagnostic Value of Digital Multiplexed Detection of Single Nucleotide Variants in Pancreatic Cancer Specimens Collected by Endoscopic Ultrasound Fine-Needle Aspiration
Presenter: Irina Cazacu
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
3303 - Phase I/II study of LDE225 in combination with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer
Presenter: Esther Pijnappel
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
2009 - Efficacy of platinum-containing chemotherapy and prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients with homologous recombination deficiency: meta-analysis of published clinical studies
Presenter: Elizeveta Polyanskaya
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
2164 - Plasmatic CXCL8 is a marker for TGFß-activated kinase 1 (TAK1) activation which may predict resistance to nanoliposomal irinotecan (nal-IRI) in gemcitabine-refractory pancreatic cancer (PC) patients
Presenter: Valeria Merz
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
2529 - A protein level signature of four selected genes associated with survival outcomes of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
Presenter: Jie Hua
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract
4947 - Pre-treatment serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and survival in a Danish cohort of patients with pancreatic cancer
Presenter: Louise Rasmussen
Session: Poster Display session 2
Resources:
Abstract