Open Access

ARTICLE

Genetic signatures of ERCC1 and ERCC2 expression, along with SNPs variants, unveil favorable prognosis in SCLC patients undergoing platinum-based chemotherapy

by ENRICO CALIMAN^1,2, SARA FANCELLI^1,2, FEDERICO SCOLARI³, ADRIANO PASQUI⁴, CLARA MANNESCHI⁴, DANIELE LAVACCHI¹, FRANCESCA MAZZONI⁴, FRANCESCA GENSINI⁵, VALERIA PASINI⁶, CAMILLA EVA COMIN^2,7, LUCA VOLTOLINI^2,8, SERENA PILLOZZI^1,2,*, LORENZO ANTONUZZO^1,2,4

1 Clinical Oncology Unit, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, 50134, Italy
2 Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, 50134, Italy
3 Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, 50134, Italy
4 Medical Oncology Unit, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, 50134, Italy
5 Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences “Mario Serio”, University of Florence, Florence, 50134, Italy
6 Section of Anatomic Pathology, Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, 50139, Italy
7 Section of Surgery, Histopathology and Molecular Pathology, University of Florence, Florence, 50139, Italy
8 Thoracic Surgery Unit, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, 50134, Italy

* Corresponding Author: SERENA PILLOZZI. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: New Insights in Drug Resistance of Cancer Therapy: A New Wine in an Old Bottle)

Oncology Research 2025, 33(1), 45-55. https://doi.org/10.32604/or.2024.050161

Received 29 January 2024; Accepted 15 May 2024; Issue published 20 December 2024

Abstract

Background: Platinum chemotherapy (CT) remains the backbone of systemic therapy for patients with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). The nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway plays a central role in the repair of the DNA damage exerted by platinum agents. Alteration in this repair mechanism may affect patients’ survival. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of data from 38 patients with extensive disease (ED)-SCLC who underwent platinum-CT at the Clinical Oncology Unit, Careggi University Hospital, Florence (Italy), from 2015 to 2020. mRNA expression analysis and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) characterization of three NER pathway genes—namely ERCC1, ERCC2, and ERCC5—were performed on patient tumor samples. Results: Overall, elevated expression of ERCC genes was observed in SCLC patients compared to healthy controls. Patients with low ERCC1 and ERCC5 expression levels exhibited a better median progression-free survival (mPFS = 7.1 vs. 4.9 months, p = 0.39 for ERCC1 and mPFS = 6.9 vs. 4.8 months, p = 0.093 for ERCC5) and overall survival (mOS = 8.7 vs. 6.0 months, p = 0.4 for ERCC1 and mOS = 7.2 vs. 6.2 months, p = 0.13 for ERCC5). Genotyping analysis of five SNPs of ERCC genes showed a longer survival in patients harboring the wild-type genotype or the heterozygous variant of the ERCC1 rs11615 SNP (p = 0.24 for PFS and p = 0.14 for OS) and of the rs13181 and rs1799793 ERCC2 SNPs (p = 0.43 and p = 0.26 for PFS and p = 0.21 and p = 0.16 for OS, respectively) compared to patients with homozygous mutant genotypes. Conclusions: The comprehensive analysis of ERCC gene expression and SNP variants appears to identify patients who derive greater survival benefits from platinum-CT.

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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