Significance of folate receptor alpha and thymidylate synthase protein expression in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer treated with pemetrexed.
J Thorac Oncol
; 8(1): 19-30, 2013 Jan.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-23242435
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION:
Folate receptor alpha (FRA) regulates cellular uptake of folates and antifolates. Information about FRA protein expression in metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is limited. We investigated FRA as a biomarker for pemetrexed-based chemotherapy and compared it with thymidylate synthase (TS), the main target of pemetrexed.METHODS:
Pretreatment tumor specimens from 207 patients with advanced NSCLC were assessed for FRA and TS protein expression by immunohistochemistry using the H-score (range, 0-300) and correlated to patients' clinicopathological data, radiographic response, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS).RESULTS:
Low total (cytoplasmic and nuclear) TS protein expression (H-score < 210) was associated with improved PFS (median 5.6 versus 3.5 months; hazard ratio [HR] = 0.6379, p = 0.0131) and prolonged OS (median 22.5 versus 11.5 months; HR = 0.5680,p = 0.0107). An association between lower TS levels and response to pemetrexed-based therapy was found-mean H-score 187 ± 5, median 180 for responders versus mean H-score 201 ± 4, median 210, for non-responders, p = 0.0244. High intracellular FRA expression (H-score ≥110) was associated with prolonged OS (28.9 versus 11.7 months, HR = 0.5316, p = 0.0040) and a trend for association with PFS (5.6 versus 4.1 months, HR = 0.7395, p = 0.0801) was noted. Membranous FRA expression was seen in 83% of patients, moreover, high membranous expression (H-score ≥20) was associated with improved PFS (5.6 versus 3.7 months, HR = 0.6445, p = 0.0306) and OS (22.1 versus 11.5 months, HR = 0.5378, p = 0.0131).CONCLUSIONS:
A large number of NSCLC patients have high expression of FRA and/or a low level of TS expression. Expression levels of FRA and TS were associated with clinical benefit from pemetrexed therapy.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Thymidylate Synthase
/
Biomarkers, Tumor
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Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung
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Folate Receptor 1
/
Lung Neoplasms
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Aged80
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
J Thorac Oncol
Year:
2013
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States