The frequencies of CYP2D6 alleles and their impact on clinical outcomes of adjuvant tamoxifen therapy in Syrian breast cancer patients

BACKGROUND: Tamoxifen is one of the fundamental pillars of adjuvant endocrine therapy for hormone receptor-positive breast cancer; however, 30–50% of patients receiving tamoxifen experience tumor relapse. CYP2D6, encoded by an extremely polymorphic CYP2D6 gene, is the rate-limiting enzyme of tamoxifen bioactivation. This study aimed at determining the frequencies of the most clinically relevant CYP2D6 alleles and evaluating their impact on the responsiveness to tamoxifen in a cohort of Syrian breast cancer patients. METHODS: This case–control study encompassed positive estrogen and/or progesterone receptor, stage 1–3 breast cancer female patients receiving tamoxifen at Al-Bairouni University Hospital, the major National Oncology Center in Syria. Successfully genotyped eligible patients (n = 97) were classified according to their response into; no recurrence group (n = 39) who had completed a five-year recurrence-free adjuvant tamoxifen therapy, and recurrence group (n = 58) who had experienced recurrence. Several star alleles including CYP2D6*4, CYP2D6*10, CYP2D6*41, and CYP2D6*69 were identified via targeted sequencing of specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products and phenotypes were assigned according to activity score (AS). The correlation between genotypes and disease-free survival (DFS) was assessed using Kaplan–Meier method and log-rank test. Hazard ratios were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression models. RESULTS: The allelic frequencies of CYP2D6*41, CYP2D6*10, CYP2D6*4, and CYP2D6*69 were found to be 9.28%, 7.22%, 7.22%, and 2.58%, respectively. No statistically significant differences were observed in the frequencies of CYP2D6 phenotypes between the two arms (P = 0.24), nor the incidence of tamoxifen-induced hot flashes (P = 0.109). Poor metabolizers (PMs) tended to display shorter DFS than intermediate metabolizers (IMs) and normal metabolizers (NMs) combined (adjusted HR = 2.34, 95% CI = 0.84–6.55, P = 0.104). Notably, patients homozygous for the null CYP2D6*4 allele (1847A/A) had an elevated risk of disease recurrence compared to patients with 1847G/G genotype (adjusted HR = 5.23, 95% CI = 1.22–22.49, P = 0.026). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show no association between CYP2D6 phenotype and treatment outcomes of tamoxifen in Syrian breast cancer patients. Nevertheless, a worse DFS was revealed in patients with 1847A/A genotype (*4/*4). SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-022-10148-8.