Excision repair cross-complementing group 1 may predict the efficacy of chemoradiation therapy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer.

PURPOSE Chemoradiation therapy (CRT) is now widely recognized as bladder-preserving therapy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). However, some patients who fail CRT may miss the chance to be cured by cystectomy. Therefore, it is important to select patients with MIBC who are expected to have a good response to CRT. Several reports indicate that the excision repair cross-complementing group 1 (ERCC1) gene is associated with resistance to cisplatin and radiation therapy. In this study, we examined the correlation between ERCC1 and CRT in vitro and in vivo in bladder cancer. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Bladder cancer cell lines T24, 5637, Cl8-2 (multidrug-resistant subline of T24), and CDDP10-3 (cisplatin-resistant subline of T24) were used for in vitro assays to measure ERCC1 expression level and growth inhibition with cisplatin or ionizing radiation (IR). We then examined by immunohistochemistry that whether ERCC1 nuclear staining correlates with the efficacy of CRT using cisplatin in 22 patients with MIBC. RESULTS Cl8-2 cells expressed ERCC1 mRNA 5.96-fold higher than did T24. Cl8-2 and CDDP10-3 were more resistant to cisplatin or IR than was T24. Resistance to IR, but not to cisplatin, was removed by suppressing ERCC1 using siRNA in both Cl8-2 and CDDP10-3 cells. In immunohistochemistry with ERCC1, 6 of 8 positive cases did not have complete response to CRT, whereas 12 of 14 negative cases had complete response. Sensitivity and specificity were 75% and 85.7%, respectively (P = 0.008). CONCLUSION Although further study is needed, ERCC1 expression level may predict the efficacy of CRT for MIBC.