ERCC1, as Prognostic and Predictive Marker in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients Treated with Oxaliplatin based Chemotherapy

Background and objectives: Excision repair cross-complementation group 1 gene (ERCC1) encodes an enzymethat is essential for the efficient repair of DNA damage induced by platinum compounds such as Oxaliplatin agent.Our study investigated the association between ERCC1 protein expression and clinical outcomes of metastaticcolorectal cancer (CRC) patients administrated with combination Oxaliplatin (OX) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)treatment.Patients and methods: Immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis of the expression of ERCC1 protein was performedon tumor tissue of 30 patients with metastatic CRC, who received first line Oxaliplatin /5-fluorouracil treatment.Tumor response, progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were evaluated.Results: there was no significant association between ERCC1 expression and response to chemotherapy (p=0.880)or PFS (p=0.133) was observed, however patients negative for ERCC1 expression had a better OS than thosepositive for ERCC1 (p=0.043).Conclusion: ERCC-1 expression is a good prognostic marker in patients with metastatic CRC who were treatedwith Oxaliplatin/5-fluorouracil, but may not be useful for the prediction of chemotherapeutic response in thesepatients.