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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pharmacol.

Sec. Translational Pharmacology

Metabolomic changes associated with treatment response of neoadjuvant chemotherapy with TEC regimen in HER2-negative breast cancer

Provisionally accepted
Kun FangKun Fang1Cuiping WangCuiping Wang1Zhenfeng LiZhenfeng Li1Li WangLi Wang2Xintong WangXintong Wang2Zhenwei JiangZhenwei Jiang3Mengyuan WuMengyuan Wu2Shuo DiaoShuo Diao2Mingming YuMingming Yu2Yang HaiYang Hai1Sherwin SySherwin Sy4Pan DengPan Deng3*Qiang MuQiang Mu1*
  • 1Qingdao Central Hospital of University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Qingdao, China
  • 2Ocean University of China School of Medicine and Pharmacy, Qingdao, China
  • 3Soochow University College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Suzhou, China
  • 4Universidade Estadual de Maringa, Maringá, Brazil

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This study aimed to explore metabolic changes over time and identify metabolites associated with treatment response in HER2-negative breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) with the TEC regimen (docetaxel, epirubicin, cyclophosphamide). Sixty plasma samples were collected from 20 patients at baseline (T1), after 3 cycles (T2), and before surgery (T3). Pathological evaluation showed 5 patients achieved complete response (pCR), 7 partial response (pPR), and 8 stable disease (pSD). After three cycles, a greater decrease in glycochenodeoxycholate was linked to worse treatment response, while a larger reduction in LysoPC(18:1) was associated with better response. After six cycles, a greater increase in epinephrine was positively associated with treatment efficacy, while greater increases in cysteine levels were associated with poorer outcomes. Ursodeoxycholic acid showed an upward trend in pCR patients, whereas it declined in pPR and pSD patients. Ursodeoxycholic acid and cysteine demonstrated predictive value, with combined analysis of both metabolites improving predictive performance.

Keywords: TEC regimen1, breast cancer2, biomarker3, metabolomics4, Treatment response5

Received: 17 Sep 2025; Accepted: 30 Oct 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Fang, Wang, Li, Wang, Wang, Jiang, Wu, Diao, Yu, Hai, Sy, Deng and Mu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Pan Deng, pandeng@suda.edu.cn
Qiang Mu, muqiang@qdu.edu.cn

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material