Proteomic Analysis to Identify Markers for Response to Neoadjuvant Treatment in Esophageal and Gastroesophageal Cancer

ABSTRACT: Background and Purpose: The current standard of care for locally advanced esophageal and gastroesophageal junctional cancer is neoadjuvant chemoradiation (NCRT) followed by surgery. The genomic and proteomic pathways responsible for response to neoadjuvant chemoradiation are sparsely described, and thus response to treatment cannot be reliably predicted. In this study, we performed an in-depth proteomic analysis of esophageal and gastroesophageal tumors, to describe differences in pathway activation between patients with good and poor prognosis following neoadjuvant chemoradiation. Materials and Methods: This study included locally advanced esophageal and gastroesophageal cancer patients treated with NCRT. The study cohort was dichotomized into two groups of patients- good prognosis (GP) and bad prognosis (BP) according to the post-operative disease-free interval. We performed a mass spectrometry analysis of proteins extracted from the malignant regions of surgical specimens and analyzed data from electronic medical records. Clinical data was correlated with differences in protein expression between GP and BP using validated gene expression pathways. Results: The study included thirty-five patients with adenocarcinoma. GP and BP had statistically significant differences in protein expression patterns. GP exhibited differential enrichment of pathways related to cellular respiration, oxidative phosphorylation and proteins of the RAS oncogene family. Conclusion: In this study we identify enrichment of pathways related to oxidative phosphorylation and RAS oncogene pathway in esophageal cancer patients with a favorable response to NCRT. Larger transcriptomic studies are warranted to portray potential surrogate signature of biomarkers based upon these potential pathways.

INSTRUMENT(S): Q Exactive

ORGANISM(S): Homo Sapiens (human)

SUBMITTER: Tamar Ziv  

LAB HEAD: Irit Ben-Aharon

PROVIDER: PXD025192 | Pride | 2022-05-20

REPOSITORIES: Pride