Background: Expression of class ΙΙΙ β-tubulin (βΙΙΙ-tubulin) correlates with tumor progression and resistance to taxane-based therapies for several human malignancies including breast cancer. However its predictive value in a neoadjuvant setting in breast cancer remains unexplored. The objective of this explorative study was to determine whether βΙΙΙ-tubulin expression in breast cancer correlated with pathologic characteristics and whether its expression was predictive of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
Patients and methods: We determined βΙΙΙ-tubulin expression in 85 breast cancers, including 41 localized breast cancers treated with primary surgery and 44 treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy before surgery. βΙΙΙ-tubulin expression was evaluated by immunohistochemical methods and was correlated with pathologic characteristics and response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy using residual cancer burden (RCB) score.
Results: High βΙΙΙ-tubulin expression was significantly associated with poorly differentiated high-grade breast cancers (P = .003) but not with tumor size, estrogen receptor (ER) status, or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)/neu overexpression. In ER(-) tumors treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, high βΙΙΙ-tubulin expression was associated with a significantly greater likelihood of achieving a good pathologic response to chemotherapy as reflected by lower RCB scores (P = .021).
Conclusion: This study reveals differential βΙΙΙ-tubulin expression in breast cancers of different histologic grades, hormone receptors, and HER2/neu status. It also suggests a potential role for βΙΙΙ-tubulin as a predictive biomarker for response in neoadjuvant chemotherapy for ER(-) breast cancer, which has not been previously reported. These data provide a strong rationale for considering βΙΙΙ-tubulin status and further validation of this marker in a large study.
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