Is there relationship between excision repair cross-complementation 1 expression level and response to treatment and prognosis in an advanced stage lung cancer treated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy?

AIM: It is important to know the tumor resistance against cisplatin before the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the response to treatment and survival in patients with NSCLC treated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy according to excision repair cross-complementation 1 (ERCC1) expression. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Among 119 patients treated with cisplatin and vinorelbine or docetaxel, 39 (32%) patients enrolled who have enough tumor tissue to analyze ERCC1 expression. ERCC1 expression defined as negative in score 0-1, positive in score 2-3. RESULTS: There was no difference between ERCC1 positive and negative groups (P = 0.63). Mean survival was 14.7 months (95% confidence interval [CI]; 10.0-19.3 month) in ERCC1 negative group, 10.9 months (95% CI; 7.4-14.3 month) in ERCC1 positive group (P = 0.23). Progression free survival was 7.9 months in ERCC1 negative group (95% CI; 5.8-9.9 months), 6.2 months in ERCC1 positive group (95% CI; 4.0-8.5 months) (P = 0.27). CONCLUSION: Identification of ERCC1 expression level of tumor tissues in NSCLC patients before treatment was not useful in prediction of treatment response and prognosis.