• Tobias Arnold, Anna Michlmayr, Suzann Baumann, Christopher Burghuber, Ursula Pluschnig, Rupert Bartsch, Guenther Steger, Michael Gnant, Michael Bergmann, Thomas Bachleitner-Hofmann, and Rudolf Oehler.
• Surgical Research Laboratories, Department of Surgery, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
• Eur. J. Clin. Invest. 2013 Mar 1; 43 (3): 286-91.

BackgroundThe response of breast cancer patients to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) is highly heterogeneous, and reliable predictive instruments remain to be defined. High-mobility group box-1 (HMGB-1) protein is a cell death marker, which is easily detectable in plasma. We hypothesized that the initial dose of NCT with epirubicin/docetaxel induces changes in plasma HMGB-1 which could allow for an early prediction of response to therapy.Materials And MethodsFirst, we analysed whether epirubicin/docetaxel releases HMGB-1 from HCC1143 breast cancer cells in vitro. Thereafter, plasma HMGB-1 levels before and 1-4 days after the first dose of epirubicin/docetaxel-based NCT were determined in 41 breast cancer patients and correlated with pathological response to treatment.ResultsTreatment of HCC1143 cells with epirubicin/docetaxel resulted in a significant HMGB-1 release in vitro. In vivo, HMGB-1 levels increased significantly only in responders (pathological complete response or partial remission, n = 22) but not in nonresponders (stable or progressive disease, n = 19).ConclusionOur data suggest that early dynamic changes of plasma HMGB1 could be a promising biomarker to predict the final response to NCT in breast cancer patients.© 2013 The Authors. European Journal of Clinical Investigation © 2013 Stichting European Society for Clinical Investigation Journal Foundation.

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