Abstract PO5-15-10: Plasticity marker FOXC1 expression accurately predicts efficacy of Adjuvant Tamoxifen + Chemotherapy in reducing all-cause mortality in ER+LN- Breast Cancer: Validation in the SCAN-B Prospective Study (NCT02306096)
Authors: Ray Partha , Ray Tania , Taylor Clive , Hussa Robert 
Published: May 2024

INTRODUCTION: Despite the development and validation of multimarker gene panels like OncotypeDx®, Mammaprint® and EndoPredict®, an affordable and globally accessible biomarker approach that can predict increased risk of all-cause mortality in patients diagnosed with ER+LN- breast cancer, as well as the efficacy of adjuvant endocrine + chemotherapy in mitigating such elevated risk, continues to be an unmet medical need. Lack of such a pragmatic solution continues to be the cause of preventable recurrent/metastatic disease in patients diagnosed with ER+LN- breast cancer in resource-challenged settings around the world. We hypothesized that a predictive biomarker strategy that measures expression of the plasticity marker FOXC1, in combination with clinical parameters like tumor size (TS) and tumor grade (TG), may offer equivalent results to that of the above multimarker gene panels at a significantly lower economic cost without compromising accuracy of prediction results.

METHODS: Pre-treatment tumor RNA data obtained from a training cohort (compendium of gene expression microarray datasets, n=2857) and a single large validation cohort (SCAN-B Prospective Multicenter Observational Study, n=3520) for patients diagnosed with ER+LN- breast cancer were analyzed for FOXC1 expression, tumor size (TS) and tumor grade (TG) and correlated with Recurrence-Free Survival (RFS) and Overall Survival (OS). Optimized biomarker cutoff values based on model area-under-curve were leave-one-out cross validated and Risk-of-Recurrence (ROR) prediction algorithm derived utilizing the (compendium) training dataset. The unmodified strategy was then validated in the independent (SCAN-B) validation dataset.

RESULTS: A predetermined High ROR score calculated using FOXC1 expression, TS and TG (trained using the compendium dataset) predicted efficacy of adjuvant endocrine + chemotherapy over that of adjuvant endocrine therapy alone in ER+LN- patients in terms of statistically significant reduction in all-cause mortality at 8-years post-diagnosis in the SCAN-B validation dataset (4.66% vs 24.06%, n=326, OR=6.48, 95%CI [2.97-14.11], p&lt; 0.0001). OncotypeDx® (5.7% vs 14.4%, n=762, OR=2.79, 95%CI [1.37-5.67], p=0.002), Mammaprint® (5.1% vs 18.4%, n=665, OR= 95%CI [2.04-8.43], p&lt; 0.0001) and Endopredict® (4.8% vs 15.2%, n=923, OR=3.58 95%CI [1.78-7.21], p=0.0002) were also statistically significant predictors of the same.

CONCLUSION: Pre-treatment tumor FOXC1 mRNA or protein expression (assessed using qRT-PCR or routine immunohistochemistry (IHC), respectively, when combined with TS and TG presents a unique and economical alternative solution to multimarker gene panel tests like OncotypeDx®, Mammaprint® or Endopredict®, for guiding therapy of patients diagnosed with ER+LN- breast cancer in resource challenged settings. Such an approach to identify elevated risk of recurrence in patients diagnosed with ER+LN- breast cancer and prevent the same by guiding adjuvant endocrine + chemotherapy decisions, could help to extend recurrence-free and overall survival. Such an approach merits testing in real world ER+LN- patient cohorts in resource-challenged settings to help support implementation of this FOXC1-driven predictive biomarker strategy in the clinic.

Citation Format: Partha Ray, Tania Ray, Clive Taylor, Robert Hussa. Plasticity marker FOXC1 expression accurately predicts efficacy of Adjuvant Tamoxifen + Chemotherapy in reducing all-cause mortality in ER+LN- Breast Cancer: Validation in the SCAN-B Prospective Study (NCT02306096) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2023 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(9 Suppl):Abstract nr PO5-15-10.