Association of RAD51 expression with response to neoadjuvant treatment and prognosis in locally advanced gastric cancer.

[BACKGROUND] We aimed to investigate the effect of RAD51 expression on pathological response and survival in gastric cancer patients receiving fluorouracil plus leucovorin, cisplatin and docataxel (FLOT) as neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT).

[RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS] RAD51 immunohistochemistry staining was performed in the endoscopy biopsies of the patients, and the pathological responses in the surgery of the patients after NACT were evaluated using the Ryan tumor regression score (RTRS).

[RESULTS] 89 patients participated in this study. The factors affecting the pathological responses of the patients after NACT were examined, patients with high RAD51 nuclear expression percentage (NEP) responded better to NACT ( = 0.020). RAD51 nuclear expression density (NED) ( = 0.127), age ( = 0.999), sex ( = 0.098), clinical stage ( = 0.540), tumor pathology ( = 0.999) did not affect the pathological response after NACT. Age, gender, clinical stage, tumor pathology, RAD51 NEP or RAD51 NED did not affect DFS or OS. Patients with low RTRS had better DFS ( = 0.001) and OS ( = 0.009) results.

[CONCLUSIONS] As a result of our study, it was observed that patients with high RAD51 NEP had better pathological responses after NACT.