A gene expression profile may be able to predict whether women with breast cancer will respond to treatment with docetaxel, according to an article in the August 2nd issue of the Lancet. Currently, all patients eligible for chemotherapy are treated similarly because there is no way to predict which women have responsive tumors. Based on the current work, it is possible that women who are likely to be resistant to docetaxel could be identified and given an alternative first-line treatment.

Jenny Chang, Ph.D., and her American colleagues hypothesized that gene expression profiles might reflect a tumor’s responsiveness to docetaxel. They took biopsy samples from primary breast tumors in 24 patients before treatment was begun and then measured tumor response to docetaxel.

Different gene expression profiles were associated with different responses to the drug. Tumors that were sensitive to treatment had higher expression of genes involved in the cell cycle, protein transport, and protein modification, whereas resistant tumors showed enhanced expression of some genes involved with transcription and signal transduction.

Chang commented, "This study helps to define the molecular portrait of cancers that respond or not to docetaxel, one of the most active agents in breast cancer treatment. When validated, this type of molecular profiling could have important implications in defining the optimum treatment for individual patients and reduce unproductive treatment, unnecessary toxicity, and overall cost. "