Authors: Elisa Pezzolo Yasmina Modena Barbara Corso Pietro Giusti Milena Gusella
Publish Date: 2015/03/06
Volume: 71, Issue: 5, Pages: 529-539
Abstract
Locally advanced rectal cancer is currently treated with presurgical radiotherapy and chemotherapy Approximately onehalf of patients obtain a relevant shrinkage/disappearance of tumour with major clinical advantages The remaining patients in contrast show no benefit and possibly need alternative treatment To provide the best therapeutic option for each individual patient predictive markers have been widely researched This review was undertaken to evaluate recent progress made in this fieldA systematic literature search was performed using PubMed and Scopus database focused on germ line gene polymorphisms as biomarkers and response and toxicity as outcomes Because an exhaustive previous review was available describing findings up to 2008 we restricted our analysis to the last 5 yearsTen original research articles were found reporting promising results for some candidate genes in drug metabolism TYMS MTHFR DNA repair XRCC1 OGG1 CCND1 and inflammation SOD2 TGFB1/immunity IL13 pathways but with no firm conclusion All the studies had small sample size and were defined as exploratory This review highlights pivotal molecular clinical genetic and statistical issues in the investigation of genetic polymorphisms as outcome predictors for rectal cancer and offers suggestions for future development
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