Correlation between EGFR Expression on Breast Cancer and NVB Sensitivity

Abstract: Breast cancer treatment has been individualized for a long time. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)， whose expression level in tissue was generally associated with high tumor grade and elevated growth fraction， was a postoperative prognostic factor for breast cancer. As a salvage treatment after anthracyclines and taxanes in advanced breast cancer， vinorelbine (NVB) also had encouraging activity when used as a single agent. We found that EGFR expression in primary breast cancer specimens was significantly correlated with NVB sensitivity (P=0.001)， while no significant correlation with pachitaxel， adriamycin or 5-fluorouracil. EFGRnegative breast cancer line MDA-MB-435s was resistant to NVB， while EGFR-positive line MCF-7 had a high sensitivity to NVB which could be reduced by anti-EGFR antagonistic antibody. Moreover， NVB upregulated EGFR expression in MCF-7 and affected ERK1/2 phosphorylation consequently， which could be partially inhibited by pretreatment inhibitory anti-EGFR antibody. Our study showed that breast cancer cells sensitivity to NVB was associated with EGFR expression on cell membrane， suggesting EGFR expression may be used as a predictive marker for breast cancer treatment strategy.

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2014.03.0009