Correlation between methylation and expression of RUNX2 gene in peripheral blood and sensitivity to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer / 中华内分泌外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the correlation between the methylation and expression of Runt associated transcription factor 2 (RUNX2) gene in peripheral blood and sensitivity to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer.Methods:90 female breast cancer patients who received full-course neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgical resection for the first time in our hospital from Jan. 2021 to Jun. 2022 were included as the study objects, and 90 healthy women who underwent physical examination in our hospital during the same period were included as the control group. The methylation level of RUNX2 gene in peripheral blood of all subjects was detected by sulfite conversion method, and the mRNA expression level of RUNX2 gene in peripheral blood was detected by fluorescence quantitative PCR. The effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients were divided into sensitive and insensitive groups.Results:The positive rate of RUNX2 gene methylation in peripheral blood of breast cancer patients was 41.11% (37/90) , significantly lower than that of the control group (64.44% (58/90) , the difference was statistically significant ( χ2=9.830, P=0.002) . The mRNA expression level of RUNX2 gene in peripheral blood of breast cancer patients was 1.73±0.24, which was significantly higher than that of the control group (1.19±0.18) , and the difference was statistically significant ( t=5.221, P<0.001) . The mRNA expression level of RUNX2 methylation-positive patients in peripheral blood of breast cancer patients was 1.26±0.20, significantly lower than that of RUNX2 methylation-negative patients (1.84±0.26) , and the difference was statistically significant ( t=4.981, P<0.001) . The positive rate of RUNX2 gene methylation was 49.28% (34/69) in patients with sensitivity to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, significantly higher than 14.29% (3/21) in patients with insensitive chemotherapy, and the difference was statistically significant ( χ2=8.142, P=0.004) . The mRNA expression level of RUNX2 gene in peripheral blood of neoadjuvant chemotherapy sensitive patients was 1.62±0.17, which was significantly lower than that of insensitive patients (2.09±0.22) , and the difference was statistically significant ( t=5.283, P<0.001) . The ROC curve showed that the sensitivity and specificity of RUNX2 mRNA expression in peripheral blood to predict the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy were 85.7% and 85.5%, respectively. Conclusion:The methylation and expression level of RUNX2 gene in peripheral blood are related to the sensitivity of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer, and can be used as a marker to predict the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer.