1. ¹Department of Oncology, Drum Tower Hospital (affiliated to Medical School of Nanjing University) and Clinical Cancer Institute of Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
2. ²Laboratory for Statistical Analysis, SNP Research Center, RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research), Tokyo, Japan
3. ³Department of Oncology, Jiangsu Cancer Hospital, Nanjing, China

Correspondence: Dr B Liu, Department of Oncology, Drum Tower Hospital (affiliated to Medical School of Nanjing University), Zhongshan Road 321, Nanjing 210008, China. Tel: +86 25 83107081; Fax: +86 25 83317016; E-mail: baoruiliu@nju.edu.cn or weijia01627@hotmail.com

⁴These authors contributed equally to this work.

Received 7 March 2007; Revised 30 May 2007; Accepted 30 May 2007; Published online 27 June 2007.

Abstract

Pharmacogenetic advances in cancer chemotherapy have the potential to predict clinical benefit to particular regimens. Platinum agents have shown to be effective in the treatment of gastric cancer. We assessed whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in xeroderma pigmentosum group D (XPD), X-ray repair cross complementing group 1 (XRCC1) and glutathione S-transferase P1 (GSTP1) predicted overall survival in gastric cancer patients receiving oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy in Chinese population. SNPs of XPD-751, XRCC1-399 and GSTP1-105 in 62 gastric cancer patients were evaluated using the TaqMan 5' nuclease assay. Genotypes were correlated to survival. The median overall survival time was 322 days (range: 56–2058 days). The median survival times for patients with Arg/Arg or Arg/Gln genotypes of XRCC1 gene were significantly longer than others (P=0.03). For 58 patients with ECOG PS (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status)2, more obvious significance was demonstrated (P=0.002). Patients with XRCC1-399 Gln/Gln genotype demonstrated a significant worse survival. No significant association was found between SNPs of XPD-751, GSTP1-105 and survival (P=0.125, 0.475, respectively). XRCC1 genotyping might make tailor chemotherapy possible for gastric cancer patients treated with oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy.