Abstract:

Objective To determine the status of ERCC1 protein expression and its potential clinical significance in patients with local regionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma（NPC）. Methods Nasopharyngeal endoscopy biopsies were collected from 102 patients with local regionally advanced NPC at diagnosis，and biopsies of cancer-adjacent normal nasopharyngeal tissues were collected from 31 patients. ERCC1 expression in the two sets of samples was compared by immunohistochemistry using monoclonal antibody. Results Rate of ERCC1 expression was 90.3% in NPC tissues and 62.7% in adjacent tissues （P<0.05）. Rate of response to cisplatin-based chemotherapy was 35.9% in patients positive for ERCC1 expression and 63.2% in patients negative for ERCC1（P<0.05）. ERCC1 expression correlated significantly with age，but not with gender or TN stage. Conclusion ERCC1 is expressed at low levels in local regionally advanced NPC，and its expression correlates negatively with chemosensitivity. ERCC1 may be useful for predicting sensitivity of NPC patients to cisplatin-based chemotherapy.

Key words: Nasopharyngeal neoplasm, Local regionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Excision repair cross complementing 1, Platinum, Chemotherapy, Efficacy, Sensitivity