The effects of
platinum-based drugs are controlled by genes that are involved in
DNA detoxification, including
glutathione S-transferase (GST)P1 and GSTM1, which have been associated with increased benefits in the chemotherapeutic treatment of patients with
ovarian cancer. The present study assessed the effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms in GST genes on the overall survival (OS) of patients with ovarian
serous cystadenocarcinoma that were treated with
chemotherapy. A total of 95 patients received treatment with a
carboplatin-based or alternative
chemotherapy. Polymorphisms in the patients were genotyped using the following methods: Pyrosequencing, to identify GSTP1 Ile105Val; a relative quantification method, to identify the copy number variation in GSTM1; and polymerase chain reaction followed by gel electrophoresis, to identify the null vs. non-null genotypes of GSTM1. The association between genotypes and OS of patients was assessed using Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. The OS of patients treated with
paclitaxel +
carboplatin-based
chemotherapy was significantly increased, compared with patients treated with alternative forms of
chemotherapy (P=0.035). The OS of patients did not differ significantly between different GSTP1 genotypes (log-rank test, P=0.17). Cox proportional hazards regression analysis revealed that, since the start of the treatment, there was not a significant association between the GSTP1
isoleucine allele and the OS for heterozygous carriers of the
isoleucine allele [hazards ratio (HR), 1.78; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.77-4.12; P=0.18] and no homozygous carriers of the
valine allele had been detected (HR, 0.00). There was no significant difference between GSTM1 genotypes, according to Kaplan-Meier survival analysis (log-rank test, P=0.83). Patients that possessed ≤1 copy of GSTM1 exhibited no decrease in OS (HR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.37-2.51; P=0.94), compared with patients that possessed two copies of GSTM1 (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.22-2.28; P=0.56). Overall, the present results suggest that there are no associations between polymorphisms in the GSTP1 and GSTM1 genes and the OS of patients with
ovarian cancer following administration of
adjuvant chemotherapy.