Hsp27 and Hsp70 in serial biopsies from breast cancer patients treated with doxorubicin

LM VARGAS ROIG; PEDRO DAGUERRE; MARCELA LEUZZI; FRANCISCO E. GAGO; NADIN SB; MA LAZZARO; CIOCCA DR

San Francisco, California, USA

Congreso; American Association for Cancer Research 93rd Annual Meeting; 2002

American Association for Cancer Research

Heat shock proteins (Hsps) may be expressed in human breast cancers. In a previous study we observed, that the administration of doxorubicin, 5-fluoruracil and cyclophosphamide increased Hsp27 and Hsp70 nuclear expression and decreased the cytoplasmic content of Hsp70 in biopsies from breast cancer patients. These changes were relatively late events because the post-chemotherapy biopsies were taken approximately 21 days after the last cycle of induction chemotherapy. In the present study, we decided to evaluate the expression of Hsp27 and Hsp70 in serial biopsies from a more homogeneous group of breast cancer patients. The study involved patients with locally advanced disease treated only with 75 mg/m2sup of doxorubicin during 4 cycles before the surgery as the initial treatment. The serial biopsies were taken at pre-chemotherapy, at days 1, 3, 7, 21, and at surgery. Forty two patients entered into this protocol, after surgery patients received 6 cycles of cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, and 5-fluorouracil. We evaluated by immunocytochemistry Hsp27 and Hsp70 expression in carcinomas (invasive and in situand in normal tissues (breast ephitelium, fibroblasts, endothelium and lymphoid infiltration). In invasive tumors, an increased nuclear expression of Hsp27 and Hsp70 was found as a relatively late event, it was significant at surgery (p