Relevance between TOP2A, EGFR gene expression and efficacy of docetaxel plus epirubicin as neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple negative breast cancer patients

Abstract

To retrospectively analyze the relevance between DNA topoisomerase Ⅱ alpha (TOP2A), epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene expression and efficacy of docetaxel plus epirubicin as neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients. A total of 53 women with triple negative breast cancer who underwent docetaxel plus epirubicin as neoadjuvant chemotherapy were included in this study. The gene detection was done in the samples before chemotherapy by DNA chip technology. The relevance between TOP2A, EGFR gene expression and efficacy, pathological complete response (pCR) rate of neoadjuvant chemotherapy were retrospectively analyzed. The high expression rate of TOP2A in all the TNBC patients was 35.8% (19/53), while the rate of EGFR was 39.6% (21/53). The overall pCR rate of TNBC patients who underwent docetaxel plus epirubicin as neoadjuvant chemotherapy was 18.9% (10/53). The pCR rate was 31.6% (6/19) in TNBC patients whose TOP2A expression was high, compared to 11.8% (4/34) in whose was low (P>0.05). The pCR rate was 28.6% (6/21) in TNBC patients whose EGFR expression was high, compared to 12.5% (4/32) in whose was low (P>0.05). The pCR rate was 75.0% (6/8) in TNBC patients whose TOP2A, EGFR expression were both high, and was significantly higher than that in all the TNBC patients (P<0.01). Efficacy of docetaxel plus epirubicin as neoadjuvant chemotherapy in TNBC patients can be predicted by detecting TOP2A, EGFR gene expression. The result may contribute to the development of more individualized neoadjuvant chemotherapy.