
Tumor Response Signature to Bevacizumab Recognized in HER2-Negative Breast Cancer
A collaborative team of researchers have been able to identify a gene signature that can predict how HER2-negative breast cancer patients would respond to treatment with bevacizumab.
Led by physicians at Case Western Reserve University, a collaborative team of researchers have been able to identify a gene signature that can predict how HER2-negative breast cancer patients would respond to treatment with bevacizumab, information that can prove extremely useful in making regimen changes.
For the study, researchers collected tumor biopsies from breast cancer patients who were enrolled in 2 preoperative clinical trials. Tumor samples were collected from each patient at baseline and after 1 dose of bevacizumab (HER2-negative), trastuzumab (HER2-positive), or nab-paclitaxel. RNA sequencing of the tumor samples at baseline of the HER2-negative patients identified a significant correlation between the basal-like subtype and pathologic complete response (pCR) to chemotherapy plus bevacizumab (P ≤ 0.0027), the authors write in their article published in the
Based on their results, the authors conclude that modulation of the TGF-β pathway following a brief exposure to bevacizumab could be an early functional readout of pCR to preoperative anti-angiogenic treatment in the HER2-negative patient population.
“We have identified a signature that tells us which patients are likely to respond to bevacizumab and chemotherapy,”
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