Role of ERCC1 Expression in Predicting the Outcome of Platinum-based Chemotherapy in Patients with End-stage Non-small-cell Lung Cancer

  Objective  To explore the role of expression of excision repair cross-complementation group 1 (ERCC1) in predicting the outcomes of platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with end-stage non-small-cell lung cancer.

  Methods  The expression of ERCC1 was detected with immunohistochemical methods in paraffin-embeded tumor specimens obtained from 39 patients with chemo-naive non-small-cell lung cancer. The relationship between ERCC1 expression and the response rate of platinum-based chemotherapy as well as its possible values in predicting overall survival (OS) and time to progression (TTP) were analyzed.

  Results  ERCC1 was highly expressed in 39 tumors (56.4%). The expression of ERCC1 showed no association with gender, age, pathologic type, grade of differentiation, smoking history, and smoking index. The response rate of platinum-based chemotherapy was significantly higher in patients with low ERCC1 expression (P < 0.05). Furthermore, ERCC1 expression had no notable influence on OS and TTP.

  Conclusion  The expression of ERCC1 in lung tumor may be useful in predicting the effectiveness of platinum-based chemotherapy for end-stage non-small-cell lung cancer.