Response to first-line chemotherapy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer according to RRM1 expression

The response to cytotoxic chemotherapy varies greatly in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and molecular markers may be useful in determining a preferable therapeutic approach for individual patients. This retrospective study was performed to evaluate the predictive value of ribonucleotide reductase regulatory subunit M1 (RRM1) on the therapeutic efficacy of platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with NSCLC.

Patients with advanced NSCLC who received platinum doublet chemotherapy (n = 229) were included in this retrospective study, and their clinical outcomes were analyzed according to RRM1 expression.

In patients receiving gemcitabine-based therapy, the disease control rate (DCR) and progression-free survival (PFS) of patients with RRM1-negative tumors were significantly higher than in patients with RRMI-positive tumors (P = 0.041 and P = 0.01, respectively), and multivariate analysis showed that RRM1 expression was an independent prognostic factor (P = 0.013). No similar differences were found in patients receiving docetaxel- or vinorelbine-based therapy. In RRM1-positive patients, the DCRs for docetaxel and vinorelbine were higher than for gemcitabine (P = 0.047 and P = 0.047, respectively), and docetaxel and vinorelbine showed a longer PFS than gemcitabine-based chemotherapy (P = 0.012 and P = 0.007). No similar differences were found among patients with RRM1-negative tumors.

Negative RRM1 expression in advanced NSCLC is associated with a higher response rate to gemcitabine-based chemotherapy. In patients with RRM1-positive tumors, docetaxel and vinorelbine showed a higher therapeutic efficacy than gemcitabine-based therapy. Additional prospective studies are needed to investigate the predictive meaning of RRM1 in the response to chemotherapy.