p53 gene status linked to topotecan sensitivity in ovarian cancerSource: Oncology 2005; 69: 154-8
Investigating the significance of p53 gene status in the response to topotecan as second-line chemotherapy in advanced ovarian carcinoma.
Ovarian cancer tumors with wild-type versions of the p53 gene are more likely to respond to second-line topotecan chemotherapy than those with mutated alleles, Italian investigators claim.
"Since the p53 gene has been identified as a determinant of response to chemotherapy in ovarian carcinoma in previous studies, we investigated the significance of the p53 status in response to topotecan as second-line therapy," explain M. Oggionni (Istituto Nazionale per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori, Milan) and colleagues.
The study involved 28 patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma who had undergone standard first-line chemotherapy with platinum/paclitaxel. The researchers tested for p53 mutations in tumor samples obtained at primary surgery.
Oggionni et al found that tumors with wild-type p53 genes that were responsive to first-line treatment "maintained substantial responsiveness" to second-line therapy with topotecan. In contrast, a low response to topotecan therapy was seen in those tumors found, at primary surgery, to have a mutated copy of p53.
"The better outcome in relapsed patients with wild-type p53 suggests that the presence of a functional wild-type p53 confers stability of the drug-sensitive phenotype," says the research team.
Posted: 7 September 2005
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