Clinical radiobiologyLow ERCC1 mRNA and protein expression are associated with worse survival in cervical cancer patients treated with radiation alone
Section snippets
Patients, treatment, and biosamples
One hundred and eighty-six patients who completed radical RT alone, with curative intent, for cervical cancer between 1986 and 1996 at a single institution (Tom Baker Cancer Centre, Calgary, AB) were identified from the Alberta Cancer Registry database. None of the patients were treated with primary surgery or with concurrent chemotherapy. Patients were excluded if they had prior definitive treatment for cervical cancer, active malignancy at another site, and/or less than five years of
Results
Of the 186 patients identified from the database, 112 had pre-treatment FFPE tumor biopsy specimens available for the analysis for evaluation of ERCC1 by AQUA® technology, using both FL297 and 8F1 antibodies. Of these 112 FFPE biopsy specimens, 63 (56%) were of sufficient size (at least 1 cm) and tumor density (at least 50% tumor) to be additionally selected for mRNA expression analysis. ERCC1 mRNA expression levels were successfully measured from 32 of these specimens. ERCC1 mRNA levels could
Discussion
In the present study, we found that low ERCC1 mRNA and protein expression are associated with worse survival in cervical cancers treated with radiation therapy, with ERCC1 expression measured using the FL297 antibody independently associated with OS on multivariate analysis. This is the largest study of ERCC1 in cervical cancer where the expression was comprehensively measured using multiple assay methods. At first glance, these findings seem surprising given the pre-clinical evidence
Financial support
Funded in part by the Alberta Cancer Foundation and the Southern Alberta Cancer Research Institute.
Conflict of interest statement
None of the authors (C.D., M.P., M.E., A.K., S.P., P.C., D.H., R.D., S.L.-M., and A.M.) have financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence their work.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of Ms. Mie Konno for collecting the data used in this study, and Dr. R. Wood for his helpful discussions.
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