A three lncRNA set: AC009975.1, POTEH-AS1 and AL390243.1 as nodal efficacy biomarker of neoadjuvant therapy for HER-2 positive breast cancer
Abstract Background and purpose LncRNAs have been found to play regulatory role in the chemoresistance after neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) of breast cancers. The breast pathological complete response (pCR) was different from the axillary nodal pCR (apCR) after NAT. And this difference was most significant in HER-2 positive (HER2+) subtype. The aim was to explore whether lncRNA expression in primary tumor had nodal predicting value for HER2 + breast cancer who received NAT. Methods Total RNA was extracted from 103 HER2 + breast cancer tissues before NAT, as well as from 48 pairs of cancers and para-cancers tissues which did not receive NAT. LncRNAs were selected by microarray, validated by qPCR, and analyzed combined with related clinical factors to illuminate its potential as nodal efficacy biomarkers of NAT. Results Our results demonstrated that three lncRNA set: lncRNA- AL390243.1, POTEH-AS1, and lncRNA-AC009975.1 were significantly up-regulated in non-apCR tissues, the AUC value was 0.789 (95%CI: 0.703–0.876). Combined with clinical factors and genomics, the multivariate analysis showed that the expression of lncRNA-AL390243.1 (OR 5.143; 95% CI: 1.570-16.847), tumor type (OR 0.144; 95% CI: 0.024–0.855) and nodal stage (OR 0.507; 95% CI: 0.289–0.888) were indicated as independent predictors for apCR after NAT in HER2 + patients (all p < 0.05). These three predictors were used to create a predictive nomogram. The AUC value was 0.859 (95%CI: 0.790–0.929). The calibration curve showed a satisfactory fit between predictive and actual observation based on internal validation with a bootstrap resampling frequency of 1000. Patients with higher level of lncRNA-AL390243.1 expression had a worse survival, especially in disease-free survival. The expression of lncRNA-AL390243.1 was significantly higher in nodal positive subgroup than in nodal negative subgroup (p = 0.0271). Conclusion The expression of LncRNA-AC009975.1, POTEH-AS1, and lncRNA-AL390243.1 were upregulated in non-apCR tissues and acted as a new potential biomarker for the nodal efficacy prediction of NAT.