Downregulation of TS, DPD, ERCC1, GST-Pi, EGFR, and HER2 gene expression after neoadjuvant three-modality treatment in patients with esophageal cancer.

BACKGROUND: To find out if neoadjuvant therapy could alter tumor response determinants that might affect tumor sensitivity to the treatment, we investigated intratumoral expressions of genes associated with chemosensitivity, radiosensitivity, or both before and after radiochemotherapy. STUDY DESIGN: Twenty-four patients with locally advanced, resectable esophageal cancer (cT2-4,Nx,M0) received neoadjuvant 5-FU/cisplatin/36 Gy treatment followed by transthoracic en bloc esophagectomy. Expression levels of thymidylate synthase, dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase, excision repair cross-complementing gene 1 , glutathione S-transferase Pi, epidermal growth factor receptor, and HER2 were measured in matched preradiochemotherapy endoscopic tumor biopsies and in postradiochemotherapy resection specimens. mRNA was isolated from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded, laser microdissected tumor tissues, and a quantitative fluorescent dye real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction system was used for gene expression measurement. RESULTS: There was a significant reduction in the expression levels of thymidylate synthase (p < 0.01), dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (p = 0.03), excision repair cross-complementing gene 1 (p < 0.01), glutathione S-transferase Pi (p = 0.03), HER2 (p < 0.01), and epidermal growth factor receptor (p = 0.04). The change in the levels of epidermal growth factor receptor mRNA in post- compared with pretreatment specimens was significantly associated with the histopathologic grade of regression (p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The expression levels of a set of genes that are possible determinants of 5-FU/cisplatin/radiation therapy antitumor activity are significantly downregulated by neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy in esophageal cancer.

Osteopontin but not osteonectin messenger RNA expression is a prognostic marker in curatively resected non-small cell lung cancer.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to better define the role of osteopontin (OPN) and osteonectin [also known as secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC)] in lung tumorigenesis by comparing the expressions of these genes in lung tumor tissue and matched normal tissue and by determining the prognostic significance of the gene expressions. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR was used to analyze OPN and SPARC mRNA expression in normal lung tissue and matching tumor samples from 82 patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Gene expression data for each patient were matched to survival data. RESULTS: The overall median mRNA expression level of OPN was about 20-fold higher in tumor tissues than in matching normal lung tissues (P < 0.001), whereas SPARC gene expression was not significantly different in both tissue types. Forty of 82 patients had high (>or=4.1) intratumoral OPN expression, and 15 of 82 patients had high (>or15.5) SPARC expression. High OPN expression in the tumor tissue was associated with inferior survival (P = 0.014), whereas high SPARC expression showed a trend toward longer survival (P = 0.095). The impact of high OPN and low SPARC expression on patient survival was additive (P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The large increase in OPN expression in tumors compared with normal tissue and its association with survival suggest a role for OPN in lung tumorigenesis.