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Annals of Oncology Advance Access published online on July 15, 2009
Annals of Oncology, doi:10.1093/annonc/mdp208
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Phase I study of apoptosis gene modulation with oblimersen within preoperative chemotherapy in patients with primary breast cancer

J. Rom1,*, G. von Minckwitz2, F. Marmé1, B. Ataseven3, D. Kozian4, M. Sievert4, B. Schlehe1, F. Schuetz1, A. Scharf1, M. Kaufmann2, C. Sohn1 and A. Schneeweiss1

1 Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg
2 Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt
3 Departement of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Red Cross Womens Hospital, Munich
4 Medical Oncology, Sanofi-Aventis GmbH, Berlin, Germany

* Correspondence to: Dr J. Rom, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University of Heidelberg, Vossstrasse 9, D-69115 Heidelberg, Germany. Tel: +49-6221-56-37987; Fax: +49-6221-56-7066; E-mail: joachim.rom{at}med.uni-heidelberg.de

Expression of the Bcl-2 protein confers resistance to chemotherapy-mediated apoptotic signals in patients with breast cancer. We investigated effects of Bcl-2 down-regulation by the Bcl-2 antisense oligodeoxynucleotide oblimersen in breast tumor biopsies. Oblimersen targets Bcl-2 messenger RNA (mRNA), down-regulates Bcl-2 protein translation and enhances antitumor effects of subtherapeutic chemotherapy doses. Within a phase I trial, we administered escalating doses of oblimersen (3, 5 or 7 mg/kg/day) as continuous infusion on days 1–7 in combination with standard-dose docetaxel (Taxotere), Adriamycin and cyclophosphamide (TAC) on day 5 as preoperative chemotherapy in 28 patients with T2–4 tumors. Effects of oblimersen were evaluated in tumor biopsies and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) 4 days after start of oblimersen and before TAC treatment by quantitative microfluidic real-time PCR. Read-outs consisted in measurement of Bcl-2 mRNA modulations and of 18 putative predictive markers. Two of 13 patients showed a diminution of Bcl-2 transcripts after 4 days of treatment with oblimersen 5 mg/kg/day. PBMCs could not be evaluated as a surrogate tissue because no qualified RNA could be isolated. Nevertheless, we demonstrated feasibility to process clinical samples and to obtain good quality RNA from tumor biopsies and indicated the potential of oblimersen to lower Bcl-2 mRNA in breast cancer.

apoptosis, breast cancer, oblimersen

Received for publication January 28, 2009. Accepted for publication March 11, 2009.


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