BRCA1 is both a prognostic and predictive biomarker of response to chemotherapy in sporadic epithelial ovarian cancer.

Objectives: We investigated the relationship between BRCA1 protein expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and clinical outcome following platinum and platinum/taxane chemotherapy in sporadic epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC).

Methods: BRCA1 IHC was performed on a cohort of 292 ovarian tumours from two UK oncology centres. BRCA1 protein expression levels were correlated with overall survival (OS), progression free survival (PFS) and clinical response to chemotherapy by multivariate analysis.

BRCA1 and implications for response to chemotherapy in ovarian cancer.

Objectives: Treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) remains a challenge, despite advances in surgery and chemotherapy. Hereditary ovarian cancer is primarily due to germline mutations in the BRCA1 tumour suppressor gene. In addition, sporadic EOC tumours display significant of loss of BRCA1 function due to epigenetic inactivation of the BRCA1 gene.