Study on the Relationship Between PTPRO Methylation in Plasma and Efficacy Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients with Early Breast Cancer

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the correlation between PTPRO methylation in plasma and the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) for early breast cancer (BC). METHODS: Eighty-two patients with early BC undergoing NAC were included. PTPRO methylation status in plasma before and after NAC was detected using methylation-specific PCR and the relationship between PTPRO methylation and NAC efficacy was analyzed. RESULTS: The rate of pathologic complete response (pCR) was only 25.0% (12/48) in patients with positive PTPRO methylation result before NAC, but 61 0.8% (21/34) in pre-NAC methylation-negative patients (OR = 0.24, 95% CI: 0.09–0.65, P = 0.005). In addition, the pCR rate was 12.1% (4/33) in patients with positive PTPRO methylation results both before and after NAC, but 53.3% (8/15) in patients with pre-NAC positive methylation and post-NAC negative methylation results (OR = 0.12, 95% CI: 0.03–0.52, P = 0.004). CONCLUSION: Plasma PTPRO methylation is a potential biomarker for predicting the efficacy of NAC in early BC.