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BMC Cancer
Published in: BMC Cancer 1/2016

Open Access 01-12-2016 | Research article

Correlation between S-1 treatment outcome and expression of biomarkers for refractory thymic carcinoma

Authors: Yusuke Okuma, Yukio Hosomi, Shingo Miyamoto, Masahiko Shibuya, Tatsuru Okamura, Tsunekazu Hishima

Published in: BMC Cancer | Issue 1/2016

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Abstract

Background

Thymic carcinoma is a rare cancer with minimal evidence of a survival benefit following chemotherapy. An oral fluoropyrimidine of S-1, however, is the recommended active cytotoxic chemotherapy agent for refractory thymic carcinoma based on a case series, whereas sunitinib or everolimus are recommended as molecular-targeted agents based on Phase II trials. We retrospectively investigated the efficacy of S-1 for refractory thymic carcinoma and performed a biomarker analysis.

Methods

We assessed the clinicopathological variables of 14 consecutive patients who underwent S-1 for refractory thymic carcinoma and correlated the clinical outcomes with potential biomarkers using paraffin-embedded cancer tissues of eight patients in the cohort.

Results

A total of 178 thymic malignancies were identified, of whom 14 patients included 12 cases of squamous cell carcinoma, one lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma, and one undifferentiated carcinoma. Six patients exhibited a partial response (42.9 %: 95 % confidence interval [CI], 21.4–67.4) and the disease control rate was 85.7 % (60.0–96.0 %). After a median follow-up of 24.2 months, the median progression-free survival was 8.1 months (range, 2.6–12.2 months), and median overall survival was 30.0 months (range, 6.2–41.9 months). No significant correlation between biomarker expression and response was noted. However, thymidine synthase (TS)/dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase and TS/orotate phosphoribosyltransferase were observed.

Conclusions

S-1 for refractory thymic carcinoma offered clinical activity and achieved an 85 % disease control rate. Although the biomarkers did not correlate with clinical outcome, the study results showed efficacy of S-1 as a cytotoxic chemotherapy for refractory thymic carcinoma, which warrants future investigation.
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Metadata
Title
Correlation between S-1 treatment outcome and expression of biomarkers for refractory thymic carcinoma
Authors
Yusuke Okuma
Yukio Hosomi
Shingo Miyamoto
Masahiko Shibuya
Tatsuru Okamura
Tsunekazu Hishima
Publication date
01-12-2016
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Cancer / Issue 1/2016
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2407
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-016-2159-7

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