Chemosensitivity prediction in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: Novel marker genes and efficacy-prediction formulae using their expression data

Esophageal cancer is a highly lethal disease and the optimal therapy remains unclear. Since adjuvant chemotherapy gives a better chance of survival, we attempted to develop a chemosensitivity prediction model to improve individual responses to therapy. Comprehensive gene expression analyses (cDNA and oligonucleotide microarrays) and MTT assay of 8 drugs in 20 KYSE squamous cell carcinoma cell lines were performed to distinguish candidate marker genes whose expression levels reproducibly correlated with cellular drug sensitivities. After confirmation with real-time RT-PCR, we performed multiple regression analyses to develop drug-sensitivity prediction formulae using the quantified expression data of selected marker genes. Using the same sets of genes, we also constructed prediction models for individual clinical responses to 5-FU-based chemotherapy using 18 cases. We selected 5 better marker genes, known as drug sensitivity determinants, identified 9 novel predictive genes for 4 of 8 anti-cancer drugs [5-FU, CDDP, DOX, and CPT-11 (SN-38)], and developed highly predictive formulae of in vitro sensitivities to the 4 drugs and clinical responses to 5-FU-based adjuvant chemotherapies in terms of overall and disease-free survivals. Our selected genes are likely to be effective drug-sensitivity markers and formulae using the 9 novel genes would provide advantages in prediction.