Gene Expression Profiles of Epigenetic treatment in primary breast cancer.

Aberrant DNA methylation and histone deacetylation participate in cancer development and progression; hence, their reversal by inhibitors of DNA methylation and histone deacetylases (HDACs) is at present undergoing clinical testing in cancer therapy. As epigenetic alterations are common to breast cancer, in this proof-of-concept study demethylating hydralazine plus the HDAC inhibitor magnesium valproate were added to neoadjuvant doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide in locally advanced breast cancer to assess their safety and biological efficacy. Keywords: Epigenetic treatment, Hydralazine, valproate, breast cancer Core-needle biopsies were taken before and after patients received for 7 days hydralazine and valproate (before receiving the first course of chemotherapy). Gene expression could only be done in three patients: Patient 1 had analyzed the pre and post-treatment samples. Patients 2 and 3 had only analyzed their post-treatment biopsy as the yield of RNA was insuficient from the pre-treatment biopsies.