Figure 5.

Better prediction of response during neoadjuvant therapy by HSD17B4 methylation than by Ki-67 index. HSD17B4 methylation levels and Ki-67 index were measured by pyro-sequencing and immunohistochemistry, respectively, using biopsy specimens before and during the neoadjuvant therapy including 12 samples with pCR and 50 samples with non-pCR. The tumor size was measured by echogram. The HSD17B4 methylation level consistently decreased only in cancer samples that achieved pCR, and was considered to be a better response marker than the Ki-67 index or tumor size.