ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the association between the genetic polymorphisms in GSTA1 and the clinical outcome of breast cancer patients treated with cyclophosphamide-based adjuvant chemotherapy. Methods A total of 137 breast cancer patients receiving cyclophosphamide-based adjuvant chemotherapy were recruited ( 124 cases with infiltrative ductal carcinoma, 5 cases with infiltrative lobular carcinoma and 8 cases with other histological types). PCR-LDR method was used to detect the genotypes of GSTA1. Survival curves were generated by the Kaplan-Meier method, and verified by the log-rank test. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to estimate the prognostic factors in multivariate analysis. Results Of the 137 breast cancer patients, the genotypic frequencies of the GSTA1 * A/* A,* A/* B and * B/* B were 67.2% ( 92/137 ), 31.4% ( 43/137 ) and 1.5% ( 2/137 ), respectively. No significant differences were found between the genotypic frequencies and groups categorization according to age, stage, lymph node metastasis, ER or PR status (x2 = 0. 722,1. 967, 3. 303, 0. 226 and 0. 709, all P ＞0. 05 ) ;through Fisher exact test, also no significant differences were found between the genotypic frequencies and group categorization according to tumor size, histological types and grading ( all P ＞ 0. 05 ) . The recurrence rates in patients with GSTA1 * A/* A and * A/* B or * B/* B genotypes were 47. 8% (44/92) and 31.1% ( 14/45 ), respectively, and the mortality rates were 22. 8% ( 21/92 ) and 17. 8% ( 8/45 ),respectively. Patients with GSTA1 * A/* B and * B/* B genotypes were significantly associated with reduced hazard of relapse (x2 =18.723, P＜0. 01)and mortality (x2 =7.352, P＜0.01), compared to cases with the common * A/* A genotypes, according to Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and log-rank test. Moreover,Cox multivariate analysis showed that GSTA1 polymorphisms appeared to be an independent risk factor for recurrence-free survival ( OR =0. 222, 95% CI:0. 108-0. 458, P ＜0. 01 ) and overall survival ( OR =0. 362,95% CI:0. 145-0. 902, P ＜ 0. 05 ). Conclusion These data indicate that GSTA1 polymorphism may be a potential prognostic factor for recurrence-free survival and overall survival in breast cancer patients treated with cyclophosphamide-based adjuvant chemotherapy.