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BRCA1 promoter methylation status does not predict response to tamoxifen in sporadic breast cancer patients

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether BRCA1 promoter methylation is associated with poorer outcome in sporadic breast cancer cases treated with tamoxifen. BRCA1 promoter methylation was determined by bisulfite pyrosequencing in two groups of sporadic breast cancer patients, systemically untreated (N = 497) and treated with adjuvant tamoxifen (N = 497). Associations of BRCA1 promoter methylation with clinopathological characteristics and the effect of BRCA1 promoter methylation on time to first recurrence (TTR) and overall survival (OS) were examined. No significant differences were observed between BRCA1 promoter methylation and clinopathological characteristics in untreated and tamoxifen-treated groups. Cut point analysis did not find any promising cut point for BRCA1 promoter methylation that would differentially influence TTR and OS in untreated and tamoxifen-treated group. Using the median (2.53 %) and an arbitrary value of 10 % as a cut point for methylation, we still found no significant effect of BRCA1 promoter methylation on TTR and OS in untreated and tamoxifen-treated group. Despite data suggesting that BRCA1 levels impact estrogen receptor response to tamoxifen, our results indicate that BRCA1 promoter methylation is not associated with poorer outcome in sporadic breast cancer cases treated with tamoxifen.

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Abbreviations

ER:

Estrogen receptor

OS:

Overall survival

TTR:

Time to first recurrence

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Acknowledgments

We thank Rong He for helping with bisulfite pyrosequencing. The study was partially supported by SPORE P50 CA58183 and CCSG P30 CA125123 grants.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Jasmina Z. Cerne, Lin Zong & Sean E. McGuire

  2. Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Jaroslav Jelinek

  3. Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Susan G. Hilsenbeck & Tao Wang

  4. Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Steffi Oesterreich

  5. Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    Sean E. McGuire

Authors
  1. Jasmina Z. Cerne
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  2. Lin Zong
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  3. Jaroslav Jelinek
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  4. Susan G. Hilsenbeck
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  5. Tao Wang
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  6. Steffi Oesterreich
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  7. Sean E. McGuire
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Correspondence to Sean E. McGuire.

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Cerne, J.Z., Zong, L., Jelinek, J. et al. BRCA1 promoter methylation status does not predict response to tamoxifen in sporadic breast cancer patients. Breast Cancer Res Treat 135, 135–143 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-012-2117-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-012-2117-2

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