Blood-Based Biomarker Discovered to Predict Chemotherapy Effectiveness in Inoperable Stomach Cancer

Seoul Asan Hospital Gastrointestinal Surgery Professor Lee Inseop's Team
Identifies Two miRNAs with Varying Expression Levels
"Ineffective Chemotherapy Worsens Patients... First Drug Is Crucial"

Professor Lee In-seop, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Asan Medical Center, Seoul.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] Korean medical staff have discovered a biomarker that can predict the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs applied to inoperable gastric cancer patients in advance.

Professor Lee In-seop's team from the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery at Seoul Asan Medical Center, together with medical staff from the U.S. 'City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center,' analyzed the blood genomic information of patients with inoperable metastatic and locally advanced gastric cancer and announced on the 19th that they found two microRNAs (miRNAs) overexpressed in patients with poor chemotherapy treatment outcomes.

Patients with inoperable metastatic and locally advanced gastric cancer are mostly treated with a combination therapy of fluoropyrimidine and platinum chemotherapy drugs. However, only some patients respond to the treatment, while in others, tumors progress further, worsening their health or making additional treatment difficult due to chemotherapy toxicity. Until now, there has been almost no way to know whether combination chemotherapy would be effective for inoperable gastric cancer patients.

The research team first collected blood samples from 12 patients diagnosed with metastatic and locally advanced gastric cancer at the U.S. City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center to analyze their genetic information through RNA sequencing. Among the 12 patients, 8 responded well to the combination therapy of fluoropyrimidine and platinum chemotherapy drugs, while 4 did not. Through this, the research team identified 9 miRNAs overexpressed in the patient group that responded poorly to chemotherapy among approximately 530 miRNAs.

Subsequently, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed on blood samples collected before chemotherapy from 29 domestic patients with metastatic and locally advanced gastric cancer. Among the 29 patients, 15 responded to the combination chemotherapy, while 14 did not. Ultimately, the research team revealed that the overexpression of two miRNAs (miR-30a-5p, miR-192-5p) in domestic metastatic and locally advanced gastric cancer patients indicates ineffectiveness of the combination therapy of fluoropyrimidine and platinum chemotherapy drugs.

This research result is expected to serve as an important foundation for the development and application of the most appropriate chemotherapy treatment regimens tailored to each patient through blood-based biomarkers. Professor Lee In-seop explained, “Chemotherapy drugs have toxicity, and if the treatment effect is unsatisfactory, cancer progresses and the patient's health deteriorates, so the first drug choice in cancer treatment is very important,” adding, “In a situation where there were almost no tools to predict chemotherapy response for metastatic and locally advanced gastric cancer patients, this study is significant in providing a clue for personalized treatment through a non-invasive blood-based biomarker.”

This study was recently published in the internationally renowned cancer research journal ‘Molecular Cancer (IF=27.410).’

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.