Nuclear corepressor 1 expression predicts response to first-line endocrine therapy for breast cancer patients on relapse.
BACKGROUND
Estrogen receptor alpha (ER alpha) is the most important endocrine therapy responsiveness predictor for women with breast cancer. The accuracy of the prediction of the response to endocrine therapy was thought to be affected by involving the estrogen receptor coregulatory proteins and cross-talk between ER and other growth factor-signaling networks. Nuclear corepressor 1 (NCOR1) is one of the ER a transcription repressor. The objective of the study is to investigate the expression of NCOR1 at the protein level and pursue its predictive value for breast cancer endocrine therapy.


METHODS
In the present study, the level of expression of NCOR1 protein has been assessed by immunohistochemistry in 104 cases of invasive carcinoma of the breast. Associations between NCOR1 protein expression and different clinicopathological factors and survival were sought.


RESULTS
It was found that NCOR1 was expressed at significantly higher levels in responsive patients treated with endocrine therapy as first-line treatment on relapse. Responsive patients also had a significantly longer post-relapse survival and overall survival. No NCOR1 expression difference was found between patient by age, tumor size, lymph node status, different histological grade groups and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status. Multivariate analysis showed that NCOR1 is an independent prognostic factor for over-all survival.


CONCLUSIONS
In breast cancer, NCOR1 protein expression level predicts response to endocrine therapy as first-line treatment for breast cancer patients on relapse and NCOR1 protein level assay may increase the accuracy in the endocrine treatment determination and, therefore, improving the patients survival.
Department of Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Faculty of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan.
Zhen-huan
ZH
Zhang
Hiroko
H
Yamashita
Tatsuya
T
Toyama
Yutaka
Y
Yamamoto
Teru
T
Kawasoe
Mutsuko
M
Ibusuki
Saori
S
Tomita
Hiroshi
H
Sugiura
Shunzo
S
Kobayashi
Yoshitaka
Y
Fujii
Hirotaka
H
Iwase
D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism*; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D056971:Nuclear Receptor Co-Repressor 1 / Q000378:metabolism*; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone / Q000378:metabolism; D013629:Tamoxifen / Q000627:therapeutic use
D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal; D047628:Estrogen Receptor alpha; D056971:Nuclear Receptor Co-Repressor 1; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D011980:Receptors, Progesterone; D013629:Tamoxifen; C539127:NCOR1 protein, human; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human