Expression levels of ERCC1 and RRM1 mRNA and clinical outcome of advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Objective: we conducted a study to understand the genetic effect of ercc1 and rrm1 on the chemotherapy response and clinical outcome of non-small cell lung cancer (nsclc). methods: the relative cdna quantification for ercc1 and rrm1 was conducted using a fluorescence-based real-time detection method among 294 nsclc patients. results: compared with the internal reference gene β-action, the median levels of ercc1 and rrm1 expression were 2.43×10^-2 and 0.11×10^-2, respectively. our study showed response to platinum- containing regimen chemotherapy was high in those with high ercc1 expression, and the or (95% ci) were 1.73(1.06- 2.81). an apparently high response to chemotherapy was decreased when patients were carrying both high expression of ercc1 and rrm1, with or (95% ci) of 2.57(1.21-4.90). patients with high expression of ercc1 were associated with a longer os by multivariate cox proportional hazards model. moreover, those carrying both high levels of ercc1 and rrm1 were seem to have a longer os when compared with those with low expression (hr=0.31, 95% ci=0.13-0.62 for os). conclusion: this observation could be used in personalized chemotherapy, increase the response rate and prolonged survival time, and could encourage to explore the predictive value of other genes.