A high proliferation rate measured by cyclin A predicts a favourable chemotherapy response in soft tissue sarcoma patients

Abstract

A small but not insignificant number of patients experience a prolonged survival after treatment of metastatic soft tissue sarcoma. This must be weighed against the majority of the patients who benefit little from the therapy, but nevertheless experience its side-effects. It would therefore be of utmost importance to be able to screen for those patients who respond to the treatment. Since proliferating cells are more sensitive to chemotherapy than non-proliferative cells, we measured the proliferation rate of the primary tumour of 55 soft tissue sarcoma patients with locally advanced or metastatic disease by determining the flow cytometric S phase fraction and immunohistochemical Ki-67 and cyclin A scores. S phase fraction or Ki-67 score did not predict chemotherapy response or progression-free survival. A high cyclin A score, however, correlated with a better chemotherapy response ( P = 0.02) and longer progression-free survival time ( P = 0.04). Our results suggest that a high cyclin A score predicts chemotherapy sensitivity. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaign

Cyclin A as a Predictive Factor for Chemotherapy Response in Advanced Head and Neck Cancer

“…Patients with CA-expressing tumors had a longer time-to-progression and better response to treatment compared with their counterparts. Similar observations were made in patients diagnosed with soft-tissue sarcoma (30). CA, in conjunction with CDK2, regulates entry into and progression through the S phase and remains active until the beginning of mitosis.…”

Cyclin A as a marker for prognosis and chemotherapy response in advanced breast cancer

“…In the preoperative setting, most studies have shown that a higher proliferation index is associated to a higher response rate of anthracycline-based chemotherapy, while the results in metastatic breast cancer are less consistent (Sjöström, 2002). There are data also from other malignancies, indicating that a higher proliferation rate correlates to a better chemotherapy response (Joensuu et al, 1994;Hahka-Kemppinen et al, 1997;Huuhtanen et al, 1999). We are aware of no clinical data on cyclin A as a predictive factor for chemotherapy in breast cancer.…”

“…High cyclin A score predicted a better chemotherapy response and longer progression-free survival in patients with soft tissue sarcoma (Huuhtanen et al, 1999). To our knowledge, there are no studies of cyclin A as a predictive marker for chemotherapy response in metastatic breast cancer.…”

Cyclin A Is a Proliferative Marker with Good Prognostic Value in Node-Negative Breast Cancer

“…A previous study on soft tissue sarcoma suggested that cyclin A, but not S phase fraction or Ki67, could predict for chemotherapy sensitivity (22). Studies on breast cancer and proliferation markers as predictors for chemotherapy response have suggested that the S phase fraction might predict chemotherapy response, at least in the neoadjuvant setting (23).…”