METHOD OF SELECTING CANCER PATIENTS FOR ANTI-ANGIOGENESIS THERAPY IN COMBINATION WITH CHEMOTHERAPY

摘要

What is described is a method for identifying a cancer patient that is amenable to anti-angiogenesis therapy in combination with chemotherapy for longer overall survival and/or progression-free survival by measuring the status of tumor cell HER2 expression, p53 expression, and apoptosis or endothelial cell CD31 expression in a tumor sample obtained from the patient prior to treatment. Bevacizumab, an antibody to vascular endothelial growth factor, is a preferred anti-angiogenesis therapy for treating several cancer types including breast cancer. Cancer patients with p53-negative or HER2 negative tumors, especially dual p53 HER2-negative tumors or tumors with low levels of apoptosis or high endothelial cell CD31 expression in the tumor samples are more amenable to anti-angiogenesis therapy with bevacizumab. These tumor characteristics provide a diagnostic method for identifying cancer patients amendable to anti-angiogenesis therapy plus chemotherapy for better treatment outcome.