Prediction of response to antiestrogen therapy in advanced breast cancer patients by pretreatment circulating levels of extracellular domain of the HER-2/c-neu protein.

Abstract

Pretreatment circulating NRP levels predict a low likelihood of benefit from HT, specifically DRO, in patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive and/or progesterone receptor (PgR)-positive or receptor-unknown metastatic breast cancer, even when adjusted for other known predictive factors, such as ER and/or PgR levels, site of disease, disease-free interval from primary treatment to recurrence, and prior adjuvant chemotherapy. These data suggest that pretreatment NRP levels may be useful in deciding whether to treat a patient who otherwise appears to be likely to respond to HT.