Correlation of in vitro chemosensitivity of freshly explanted gastric cancer samples to Docetaxel,Gemcitabine,Irinotecan and their targeted gene expression

Objective:To investigate the correlation of in vitro chemosensitivity of freshly explanted gastric cancer samples to Docetaxel,Gemcitabine and Irinotecan with the mRNA expression levels of BRCA1,hENT1 and Topo1 in gastric cancer.Methods:Freshly explanted gastric cancer samples were collected from 36 patients.Chemosensitivities to Docetaxel,Gemcitabine and Irinotecan were evaluated by histoculture drug response assay;Multiplex rtPCR experiments for BRCA1,hENT1 and Topo1 were performed in parallel.Results:The in vitro chemosensitivity of freshly explanted gastric cancer samples to these three chemotherapy agents had no relationship with clinical feature;so did the expression level of these three genes.In gastric cancer samples,the mRNA expression level of hENT1 ranked the highest,while that of BRCA1 was lowest.BRCA1 mRNA expression level was positively correlated with chemosensitivity to Docetaxel(P=0.001).hENT1 and Topo1 mRNA expression levels were not statistically related with sensitivity of freshly explanted gastric cancer samples to Gemcitabine and Irinotecan separately.Conclusion:BRCA1 mRNA expression level in gastric cancer was positively correlated with in vitro chemosensitivity of freshly explanted gastric cancer samples to Docetaxel.