No evidence of an association of ERCC1 and ERCC2 polymorphisms with clinical outcomes of platinum-based chemotherapies in non-small cell lung cancer: a meta-analysis.

Background: The nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway modulates platinum-based chemotherapeutic efficacy by removing drug-induced DNA damage.

Methods: To summarize published data on the association between NER genes and responses to platinum-based chemotherapies in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we performed a meta-analysis of 17 published studies of ERCC1 C118T/C8092A and ERCC2 Lys751Gln/Asp312Asn polymorphisms, including 2097 cancer patients. Primary outcomes included objective response (TR) (i.e., complete response+partial response vs. stable disease+progressive disease), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). We calculated odds ratio (OR) or hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) to estimate the risk or hazard.

Results: We found that none of the ERCC1 C118T/C8092A and ERCC2 Lys751Gln/Asp312Asn polymorphisms alone was statistically significantly associated with objective response, PFS and OS in NSCLC patients.

Conclusion: There is no evidence to support the use of NER ERCC1 C118T/C8092A and ERCC2 Lys751Gln/Asp312Asn polymorphisms as prognostic predictors of platinum-based chemotherapies in NSCLC.