title: Clinicopathological significance of ERCC1 expression in breast cancer.
abstract: The excision repair cross-complementation 1 (ERCC1) enzyme plays an essential role in the nucleotide excision repair pathway and is associated with resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy in different types of cancer. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the clinicopathological significance of ERCC1 expression in breast cancer patients. We analyzed the immunohistochemical expression of ERCC1 in a tissue microarray from 135 primary breast carcinomas and correlated the immunohistochemical findings with clinicopathological factors and outcome data. ERCC1 expression analysis was available for 109 cases. In this group, 58 (53.2%) were positive for ERCC1. ERCC1-positive expression was correlated with smaller tumor size (P=0.007) and with positivity for estrogen receptor (P=0.040), but no correlation was found with other clinicopathological features. Although not statistically significant, triple negative breast cancers were more frequently negative for ERCC1 (61.5% of the cases) compared to the non-triple negative breast cancer cases (41.5%). In conclusion, ERCC1 expression correlated significantly with favorable prognostic factors, such as smaller tumor size and ER-positivity, suggesting a possible role for ERCC1 as a predictive and/or prognostic marker in breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: IPATIMUP - Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology of Porto University, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Renê
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gerhard
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carvalho
authors.forename: Vítor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Carneiro
authors.forename: Rui San
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Bento
authors.forename: Gilberto
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Uemura
authors.forename: Madalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Albergaria
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schmitt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D004720:Endonucleases / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis; D064726:Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology / Q000473:pathology; D047368:Tumor Burden; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C071447:ERCC1 protein, human; D004720:Endonucleases