The therapy of gefitinib towards breast cancer partially through reversing breast cancer biomarker arginine

Background: Breast cancer remains the leading reason of cancer death among women worldwide, and gefitinib is the efficient drug for breast cancer.
Aims: To use targeted metabolomics method to elucidate the therapeutic mechanism of gefitinib through profiling the amino acids.
Methods: Healthy women (n=56) and women with breast cancer (n=60) were enrolled in Affiliated Yuhuangding hospital, medical college of Qingdao University from 2012-2014. API 3200 triple quadrupole mass spectrometer was used to analyze the serum samples.
Results: The concentration of amino acids was compared between healthy women and women with breast cancers. Compared with the healthy women, the concentration of arginine in breast cancer women significantly decreased (p<0.0001). To show the representative capability of arginine towards the pathogenesis of breast cancers, the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was drawn, and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated to be 0.96 ± 0.02, indicating the high predictive capability of arginine for breast cancer . The reversing ability of gefitinib towards the level of arginine was further determined, and 1 month treatment of gefitinib (500 mg/day) significantly reversed the arginine level of breast cancer patients (p<0.0001)
Conclusion: The therapy of gefitinib towards breast cancer through reversing breast cancer biomarker arginine was demonstrated.