Background: Platinum-based therapy is widely used in the treatment of malignant mesothelioma (MM); however, the efficacy and toxicity of platinum agents vary greatly between patients. The aim of our study was to evaluate the influence of platinum pathway polymorphisms on treatment outcome in patients with MM.
Patients and methods: In total, 133 patients with MM treated with (n = 97) or without (n = 36) platinum-based therapy were genotyped for common XPD, ERCC1, and GSTP1 polymorphisms, as well as for GSTM1 and GSTT1 gene deletion. Haplotype analysis was carried out to assess the combined effect of nucleotide excision repair (NER) polymorphisms.
Results: GST polymorphisms were not associated with treatment outcome in patients with MM. In the group of platinum-treated patients with MM, ERCC1 8092C/C wild-type genotype significantly influenced progression-free survival (PFS) in multivariable analysis accounting for clinical variables (P = 0.034). XPD 312Asp/Asp and ERCC1 8092C/C wild-type genotypes also increased the odds of treatment-related toxic effects in univariable as well as multivariable analysis. The association of wild-type NER genotypes with better PFS and higher susceptibility to treatment-related toxic effects was confirmed in haplotype analysis.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that polymorphisms in NER pathway influence platinum-treatment efficacy and toxicity; therefore, these should be further evaluated as potential markers for the prediction of clinical outcome in patients with MM.