Abstract P3-05-15: Clinical significance of breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) quantified by fluorescence nanoparticle in breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy
Authors: Tada Hiroshi , Gonda Kohsuke , Kitamura Narufumi , Miyashita Minoru , Harada-Shoji Narumi , Hamanaka Yohei , Ebata Akiko , Ishida Takanori 
Published: March 2023

Breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP), also known as ATP-binding cassette transporter G2 (ABCG2), is associated with chemotherapy resistance. BCRP is also implicated in breast cancer stem cells and has been reported as a poor prognostic factor. However, the relationship of BCRP levels in breast cancer tissues with chemotherapy resistance and prognosis has not been clarified to date. Our laboratory recently developed nanoparticles suitable for the quantitative immunohistochemical (IHC) method called phosphor-integrated dots (PIDs). Using PID-based IHC (IHC-PIDs), many biomarker proteins can be visualized and quantitatively analyzed at the single-particle level in paraffine-embedded, formalin-fixed tumor samples. We aimed to evaluate the correlation between quantitatively analyzed BCRP expression and prognosis in breast cancer tissue samples using immunohistochemistry with IHC-PIDs. Thirty-seven Japanese patients diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast who underwent mastectomy and lymph node dissection at Tohoku University Hospital (Sendai, Japan) between 2004 and 2010 were included. All patients had undergone NAC and were pathologically diagnosed with non-pathological complete response or progressive disease and lymph node metastasis postoperatively. The patients were followed up within a median of 10.1 years (range, 1.1–18.2 years). Among the thirty-seven patients, twenty-eight patients had core needle biopsy specimens taken before NAC. BCRP levels in breast cancer tissue and metastatic lymph nodes were quantitatively detected after preoperative chemotherapy and core needle biopsy. Biomarker assay with IHC-PIDs showed high accuracy for quantitative assessment of BCRP with low expression. The optimal PT+LN BCRP cut-off score for predicting survival was 27.4, with a sensitivity of 60.6% and a specificity of 77.3%. BCRP expression in PT+LN samples was dichotomized into high and low groups at this cutoff value, and OS was compared between these group. The results showed that OS was significantly worse in the high BCRP-expression group (log-rank p=0.0089). In conclusion, high BCRP levels are associated with poor prognosis in patients with breast cancer with residual tumors within the primary tumor and lymph nodes after preoperative chemotherapy. These findings provide a basis for further appropriate adjuvant therapy in these patients.

Citation Format: Hiroshi Tada, Kohsuke Gonda, Narufumi Kitamura, Minoru Miyashita, Narumi Harada-Shoji, Yohei Hamanaka, Akiko Ebata, Takanori Ishida. Clinical significance of breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) quantified by fluorescence nanoparticle in breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr P3-05-15.