High Specificity of Quantitative <b> <i>Excision Repair Cross-Complementing 1</i> </b> Messenger RNA Expression for Prediction of Minor Histopathological Response to Neoadjuvant Radiochemotherapy in Esophageal Cancer

Abstract

Relative expression levels of ERCC1 mRNA determined by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR appear highly specific to predict minor response to our neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy protocol in patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer and could be applied to prevent expensive, noneffective, and potentially harmful therapies in a substantial number (42%) of patients.