Do thymidylate synthase protein expression levels remain stable during paclitaxel and carboplatin treatment in non-small cell lung cancer?
The discordance observed between paired serial samples likely reflects intratumoral heterogeneity of TS expression and highlights the need of sufficient representative material for TS expression analysis if this biomarker is to be used for treatment selection. TS expression in primary tumors remained unchanged, and new biopsies for deciding on second-line pemetrexed does not seem warranted based on the current results.
Our results offer important biological validation of cholesterol as a key lipid marker for plaque severity. Results also suggest cholesterol is a more sensitive plaque marker than routine histological staining for neutral lipids.