Assessment of an RNA interference screen-derived mitotic and ceramide pathway metagene as a predictor of response to neoadjuvant paclitaxel for primary triple-negative breast cancer: a retrospective analysis of five clinical trials

Abstract

Addition of taxanes to preoperative chemotherapy in breast cancer increases the proportion of patients who have a pathological complete response (pCR). However, a substantial proportion of patients do not respond, and the prognosis is particularly poor for patients with oestrogen-receptor (ER)/progesterone-receptor (PR)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2; ERBB2)-negative (triple-negative) disease who do not achieve a pCR. Reliable identification of such patients is the first step in determining who might benefit from alternative treatment regimens in clinical trials. We previously identified genes involved in mitosis or ceramide metabolism that influenced sensitivity to paclitaxel, with an RNA interference (RNAi) screen in three cancer cell lines, including a triple-negative breast-cancer cell line. Here, we assess these genes as a predictor of pCR to paclitaxel combination chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer.