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Erschienen in:
28.07.2017 | Clinical Trial Report
Significance of glucocorticoid receptor expression in patients with non-small cell lung cancer treated with pemetrexed-based chemotherapy
Erschienen in: Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology | Ausgabe 4/2017
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Background
Pemetrexed is the preferred chemotherapy agent in the management of non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (non-sq-NSCLC), but lacks biomarkers predicting its efficacy. Dexamethasone, one of the premedications of pemetrexed, may downregulate p53 through the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). The purpose of our study was to explore the effect of GR in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and its role in predicting pemetrexed efficacy.
Methods
In all, 122 patients with stage IV non-sq-NSCLC who received first-line pemetrexed-containing chemotherapy were retrospectively reviewed. The expression of GR in PBMC was measured before treatment with pemetrexed using real-time PCR was used to detect the levels of GRα and GRβ.
Results
The response rate for all patients was 38.5%, with a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 5.9 months and overall survival (OS) of 14.3 months. In univariate analyses, patients with a low GRα/GRβ ratio in PBMC had higher RR, better PFS, and better OS than those with a high GRα/GRβ ratio (RR: 48.2 vs. 30.3%, p = 0.043; mPFS: 6.9 vs. 4.0 months, p < 0.001; mOS: 18.7 vs. 12.2 months, p = 0.005). The baseline GRα/GRβ ratio was an independent factor for RR (odds ratio [OR] = 0.451, 95% CI 0.208–0.978; p = 0.044), PFS (HR = 1.584, 95% CI 1.094–2.295; p = 0.015), and OS (HR = 1.761, 95% CI 1.195–2.595; p = 0.004).
Conclusions
Baseline GRα/GRβ ratio in PBMC may play a role in predicting the efficacy of first-line pemetrexed-containing chemotherapy in stage IV non-sq NSCLC patients.
