The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7261 p169
9 August 2003

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Lancet (www.thelancet.com)

Genetic test predicts how breast cancer responds

Gene expression profiles could be used to determine whether patients with breast cancer will respond to docetaxel (Taxotere), researchers report (Lancet 2003;362:362). Patients likely to be resistant to the drug could be identified using this technique and this would reduce the need for unnecessary treatment, they say.

Dr Jenny Chang and colleagues from Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, took biopsy samples from primary breast tumours in 24 patients before treatment and then assessed tumour response to docetaxel.

They found that different gene expression profiles were associated with different responses to the drug — in all, 92 genes correlated with docetaxel response. Genes involved in the cell cycle, protein transport and protein modification were expressed more in tumours sensitive to treatment. Resistant tumours showed increased expression of some transcriptional and signal transduction genes.

Dr Chang comments: “This study helps to define the molecular portrait of cancers that respond or not to docetaxel, one of the most active agents in breast cancer treatment. When validated, this type of molecular profiling could have important implications in defining the optimum treatment for individual patients, and reduce unproductive treatment, unnecessary toxicity, and overall cost.”