title: Transcriptional profile and response to neoadjuvante chemotherapy in breast cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To improve the accuracy predictive models of response to neoadjuvante chemotherapy in breast cancer, cDNA microarray technology was used to study tumor transcriptional profile. Gene signatures associated with predicting the response to neoadjuvante chemotherapy are the subject of this review.
  
  
  METHODS
  The data base http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ search was conducted by using the words "breast cancer" AND "neoadjuvante/primary chemotherapy" AND "gene expression profile/microarray". After excluding the repeats and selecting the publications considered most relevant by the authors to be presented, 279 publications were retrieved.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The number of publications regarding this subject has been increasing over the years, reaching over 50 in 2010, including the response to different chemotherapeutic drugs, such as anthracyclines and taxanes either alone or in combination. The first studies are from early last decade and used microarray platforms produced by the investigators. Recent studies have used commercial microarray platforms whose data have been stored in public databases, allowing for the analysis of a higher number of samples. Several transcriptional profiles associated with the complete pathological response were identified. Other authors used the clinical response to treatment as an endpoint, and, in this case, a predictive panel of resistance to the chemotherapeutic regimen at issue was determined. This is also a key issue, as it can contribute to individualize treatment, allowing patients resistant to a certain chemotherapeutic agent to be offered another therapeutic regimen.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Identifying patients responsive to chemotherapy is of essential interest and despite major steps have been taken, the issue warrants further studies in view of its complexity.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Radiologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. makoike@lim24.fm.usp.br
authors.forename: Maria Aparecida Azevedo Koike
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Folgueira
authors.forename: Igor Moyses Longo
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Snitcovsky
authors.forename: Paulo Roberto
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Del Valle
authors.forename: Maria Lucia Hirata
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Katayama
authors.forename: Maria Mitzi
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Brentani
authors.forename: René Aloisio da Costa
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Vieira
mesh_terms: D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D016896:Treatment Outcome