ERCC1 mRNA levels can predict the response to cisplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy of locally advanced cervical squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the excision repair cross-complementation group 1 (ERCC1) mRNA expression could predict treatment response of patients with locally advanced cervical squamous cell carcinoma (LACSCC) who underwent cisplatin-based concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCCRT). METHODS: A total of sixty LACSCC patients, treated with radical CCCRT from a single institution were evaluated. ERCC1 mRNA expression was determined by quantitative real-time RT-PCR in pre-treatment tumor tissues. The association of ERCC1 status with clinicopathological characteristics (age, histological grade, tumor size, parametrial invasion, lymph node metastasis and FIGO stage) and treatment response were analyzed. RESULTS: No significant association between ERCC1 mRNA expression and clinicopathological characteristics were observed. Patients with low ERCC1 mRNA level had a significantly higher rate of complete response (86.21%) than patients with high level of ERCC1 expression (19.36%; p < 0.001). In the logistic regression analysis, low ERCC1 mRNA level retained an independent role in predicting complete response to CCCRT (P < 0.001). An ERCC1 expression level of 0.0901 was determined as an optimal cutoff value to identify complete response patients to CCCRT treatment. The sensitivity for detection of a complete response was 81.48% with a specificity of 96.97% (area under the curve, 0.893; 95% confidence interval, 0.804–0.983). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first analysis of the association between ERCC1 mRNA levels and treatment response in patients with LACSCC. Low ERCC1 mRNA level appears to be a highly specific predictor of response to CCCRT in LACSCC.