Gene Signature May Predict Response To Cancer Chemotherapy

An eight gene ‘signature’ can predict length of relapse-free survival after chemotherapy, according to new research from Taiwan.

AsianScientist (Apr. 22, 2013) – An eight gene ‘signature’ can predict length of relapse-free survival after chemotherapy, according to new research from Taiwan.

In a study published in the journal BMC Medicine, Researchers from Academia Sinica and the National Taiwan University College of Medicine first identified genes that were involved in cellular invasion, a property of many cancer cells, using the National Cancer Institute’s 60 human cancer cell line panel (NCI-60).

By comparing the pattern of activation of each of these genes in different cell lines with how these cell lines responded to 99 different anti-cancer drugs, the researchers narrowed down the list of genes to just those which could potentially influence the outcome of chemotherapy.

The eight-gene signature featured the cancer hallmark gene, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and genes involved in cell adhesion, migration, invasion, tumor growth, and progression.

In clinical studies, they found that patients with lung and breast cancer whose gene signature put them in the low-risk group had a longer relapse free survival than the high-risk group.

“Our study found eight genes which were involved in invasion, and the relative activation of these genes correlated to chemotherapy outcome, including the receptor for growth factor EGF. We also found that some invasion genes had unique patterns of expression that reflect the differential cell responses to each of the chemotherapy agents – five drugs (paclitaxel, docetaxel, erlotinib, everolimus and dasatinib) had the greatest effect,” said Prof. Ker-Chau Li, from Academia Sinica and UCLA.

The article can be found at: Hsu Y-C et al. (2013) Genome-wide analysis of three-way interplay among gene expression, cancer cell invasion and anti-cancer compound sensitivity.

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Source: BioMed Central; Photo: crafty_dame/Flickr/CC.
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