Role of ERCC1 and BRCA1 in prognosis of NSCLC patients receiving postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy

Abstract:

Objective：To discuss the prognostic value of excision repair cross complementary gene 1（ERCC1） and breast cancer sus－ceptibility gene 1（BRCA1） in patients with non-small cell lung cancer（NSCLC） who received postoperative platinum-based chemother－apy. Methods：Lung tissues of 80 patients who were eventually diagnosed as NSCLC and were treated by surgery between 2004 and 2008 were collected. Protein expressions of ERCC1 and BRCA1 in lung cancer tissues of 80 NSCLC cases and in adjacent normal lung tissues of 20 cases were detcted by immunohistochemisty. All tissues came from patients with NSCLC who received at least two cycles of platinum-based postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. Relationships between expressions of two proteins with choice of chemotherapy，disease-free survival（DFS）time and overall survival（OS） time were analyzed. Results：①Positive expression rates of ERCC1 and BRCA1 were significantly higher in lung cancer tissues than in adjuvant normal lung tissues with statistical differences（P=0.036，P=0.041）.Expressions of two proteins were not correlated with patients’ age，sex，clinical stages and pathological classifi－cation. ②Patients in lower ERCC1 expression group had longer DFS time and OS time than those in higher expression group（P=0.004，P=0.032）；similar conclusion was drawn concerning expressions of BRCA1（P=0.023，P=0.006）. ③Patients with lower ERCC1 and BRCA1 expressions had longer DFS time and OS time than those with higher expressions. ④Patients in lower ERCC1 and BRCA1 expression group benefited most from cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Conclusions：ERCC1 and BRCA1 could effectively estimate prognosis of NSCLC patients receiving postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy. Higher ERCC1 and BRCA1 expression may be predictior of patients with NSCLC who have adverse outcomes after postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy.