Successful personalized chemotherapy for metastatic gastric cancer based on quantitative BRCA1 mRNA expression level: A case report

Abstract

Personalized chemotherapy is based on the specific genetic profile of individual patients and is replacing the traditional ‘one size fits all’ medicine. Breast cancer 1 (BRCA1) plays a central role in the chemotherapy-induced DNA damage response. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that BRCA1 mRNA levels were negatively associated with cisplatin sensitivity, but positively associated with docetaxel sensitivity in patients with gastric cancer in experimental and clinical studies. This feature leads to customized chemotherapy based on the BRCA1 mRNA expression level and results in a high efficacy of treatment. The present study describes the case of a 77-year-old patient with metastatic gastric cancer who was treated with personalized chemotherapy based on quantitative BRCA1 mRNA expression level. This study and the available literature data suggest that the expression level of BRCA1 mRNA is dynamic to BRCA1-based chemotherapy. More importantly, de novo assessment of BRCA1 status is a preferable option for ciscisplatin- or docetaxel-resistant patients, since the expression levels of BRCA1 mRNA in certain patients may alter significantly following treatment. Therefore, BRCA1 expression should be assessed for predicting differential chemosensitivity and tailoring chemotherapy in gastric cancer.