Topoisomerase Ii Alpha And Brca1 Expression As Predictive Factors For Anthracycline-Based Adjuvant Chemotherapy Response And Prognosis In Triple-Negative Breast Cancers

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive histologically-defined cancer with a poor outcome for patients because there is a lack of targeted treatments. Anthracycline has an anti-tumor effect through binding to its target molecule, topoisomerase II alpha (TOP2A), and leads to DNA double-strand breaks. BRCA1 plays a critical role in repairing these breaks. This study investigated TOP2A and BRCA1 expression in TNBC correlated with disease-free survival (DFS) or overall survival (OS) in 105 primary TNBC patients treated with adjuvant anthracycline-based regimens. TOP2A and BRCA1 were evaluated by immunohistochemistry from 105 patients with TNBC in stages T1-T2, N0-N2 or M0. The DFS and OS rates for TOP2A-positive was significantly higher than TOP2A-negative patients, while the DFS and OS for BRCA1-negative was significantly increased than BRCA1-positive. The DFS and OS rates for TOP2A-positive and BRCA1-negative tumors were higher but they were not significantly compared with TOP2A-positive and BRCA1-positive tumors, but they were significantly higher than TOP2A-negative and BRCA1-positive tumors and TOP2A-negative and BRCA1-negative tumors. The combination of TOP2A-positive and BRCA1-negative phenotype might represent a favorable response in patients with TNBC who are treated with adjuvant anthracycline-based regimens.