Evaluation of neoadjuvant chemotherapy efficacy by the expression of cyclin D1 in human breast cancer

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) by investigating the expression of cyclin D1 in human breast cancer before and after NAC.Methods Eighty-four cases of breast cancer were diagnosed by core biopsies.The expression level of cyclin D1 in cancer tissues was measured by immunohistochemical envision two-step method before and after NAC (pirarubicin and docetaxel regimen for 3-4 cycles).Results Complete remission (CR) occurred in 4 cases of 84 patients (4.76 ％) with 2 pathological complete response cases,partial response (PR) in 54 cases (64.29 ％),stability (SD) in 26 cases (30.95 ％) and no disease progression (PD) patients.The positive rate of cyclin D1 in cancer tissues [65.48 ％ (55/84)] was significantly decreased after NAC [39.29 ％ (33/84)] (x2 =11.55,P =0.001).In clinical level,the ease rate was significantly improved in patients whose cyclin D1 expression switched from positive [86.36 ％ (19/22)] to negative [45.45 ％ (15/33)] after NAC treatment (x2 =9.359,P =0.002).Conclusion NAC significantly decreases the expression of cyclin D1 in breast cancer tissues.Meanwhile,the ease rate is improved when cyclin D1 expression switched from positive to negative after NAC.Therefore,cyclin D1 expression can be used as an evaluation index for the efficiency of NAC. Key words: Breast neoplasms; Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy; cyclin D1