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J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2019;5:31 I http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2019.21 Page 6 of 36

7. Role of ERCC5 polymorphism and risk of breast cancer in Thailand

1
Malinee Pongsavee , Kamol Wisuwan 2

1 Department of Medical Technology, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Thammasat University, Patumthani
12121, Thailand.
2 Department of Pathology, Ubon Ratchathani Cancer Hospital, Ubon Ratchathani 34000, Thailand.

Breast cancer is a major public health problem around the world, including Thailand and it has the highest
ranking among female cancer. Polymorphism of ERCC5 gene (excision repair cross-complementary
group 5 gene or ERCC5) was reported to associate with an increased risk of breast cancer. This study aims
to investigate the relationship between ERCC5 polymorphism and the breast cancer risk in the lower
northeastern region women of Thailand. One hundred fifty samples from breast cancer patients and 122
samples from healthy control group were analysed. Genomic DNA was extracted from white blood cell of
all samples. The real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to demonstrate genetic polymorphism of
ERCC5. The results showed that the ERCC5 rs751402 polymorphism variant AG was associated with an
increased risk of breast cancer (P < 0.05). This study demonstrated that ERCC5 rs751402 genotype AG was
associated with breast cancer risk in the lower northeastern region women of Thailand.

8. The RNA Disruption Assay as a tool to predict pathologic complete response and improved

disease-free survival in breast cancer patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Amadeo Mark Parissenti 1,2,3,4,5

1 Health Sciences North Research Institute, Sudbury, ON P3E 5J1, Canada.
2 Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON P3E 2C6, Canada.
3 The Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Sudbury, ON P3E 2C6, Canada.
4 Rna Diagnostics, Inc., Sudbury, ON P3E 2H3, Canada.
5 Rna Diagnostics, Inc., Toronto, ON M4T 1L9, Canada.

We have observed that a variety of mechanistically distinct chemotherapy drugs can induce the degradation
of ribosomal RNA into high molecular weight fragments in multiple tumour cell lines in a dose- and
time-dependent manner - a phenomenon we term “RNA disruption”. Moreover, we have developed the
RNA disruption assay (RDA) to quantify ribosomal RNA degradation in tumour cell lines and tissues.
Interestingly, chemotherapy agents cannot induce RNA disruption in chemo-resistant cell lines, suggesting
RDA may be useful clinically in monitoring tumour response to chemotherapy in real time. Consistent
with this view, we observed that high mid-treatment tumour RNA disruption in patients with locally
advanced breast cancer is associated with a pathologic complete response (pCR) and improved disease-free
survival after epirubicin/docetaxel neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Moreover, we and our collaborators have
recently shown that high tumour RNA disruption after only one cycle of neoadjuvant trastuzumab-based
chemotherapy predicted for a post-treatment pCR in patients with Her2+ breast cancer. The BREVITY
clinical trial (Breast Tumour Response Evaluation for Individualized Therapy) will soon be accruing
patients in Germany, Italy, Ireland, the United States, and Canada to further assess the utility of RDA to
predict response and survival after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The patient eligibility criteria, trial design,
timing of tumour biopsies, and both primary and secondary study endpoints will be discussed. RDA may
enable oncologists to identify patients with chemo-resistant tumours early in neoadjuvant chemotherapy,