Abstract 3082: miR-155-5p expression is associated with response to neoadjuvant paclitaxel treatment of locally advanced breast cancer

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Resistance to chemotherapy remains a prominent obstacle to cure in cancer. We have previously shown that genetic defects in key pathways involved in processes like apoptosis, cell-cycle arrest and senescence may be involved in resistance to chemotherapy in vivo. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are known to be crucial regulators of gene expression, and to potentially affect the response to drugs, including chemotherapy. Here, we aimed to explore the potential role of miRNAs in mechanisms of breast cancer chemoresistance in-vivo, by analyzing miRNA expression in breast cancer patients with recorded responses to chemotherapy. Patient materials and Methods Breast tumour biopsies were collected before chemotherapy in a prospective clinical study, where patients were randomized to receive epirubicin or paclitaxel monotherapy (n = 223). Information about the response to therapy, as defined by the UICC criteria, in addition to long-term outcome, was available for all patients. The global miRNA expression levels were analyzed in 50 breast tumour biopsies by deep sequencing. The patients were selected based on their response to first-line chemotherapy. To verify the results obtained by miRNA sequencing, selected miRNAs were quantified in all patients by qPCR. Results No global miRNA patterns were observed when performing unsupervised clustering of miRNA sequencing data. Among samples from paclitaxel-treated patients, we identified three differentially expressed miRNAs between response groups; the expression of miR-155 was significantly lower (p = 0.005) in patients with poor response to paclitaxel, and the expression of both miR-181a and miR-181b were significantly higher (p = 0.003 and 0.012, respectively) in patients with poor response to paclitaxel. qPCR data validated the initial association identified between high miR-155-5p expression levels and response to paclitaxel treatment. Intriguingly though, high levels of miR-155 were also associated with a poor prognosis in the study population as a whole (p = 0.012), as well as with the presence of mutations in TP53 (p < 0.001). Conclusion Here, we show that breast cancer patients responding to paclitaxel treatment have higher expression levels of miR-155-5p. Also, patients with elevated levels of miR-155-5p expression have a poor prognosis and a higher frequency of TP53 mutations. Citation Format: Anne Hege Straume, Einar Birkeland, Stian Knappskog, Per Eystein Lønning. miR-155-5p expression is associated with response to neoadjuvant paclitaxel treatment of locally advanced breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 3082. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-3082