Expression of the multidrug resistance-associated protein gene in refractory lymphoma: quantitation by a validated polymerase chain reaction assay.

Previous work investigating the role of MDR-1 overexpression in relapsed and refractory lymphoma led us to investigate a possible role for multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP) as a cause of resistance in patients who did not overexpress MDR-1. A quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method for measuring MRP expression was validated. Immunoblot analysis suggested that no major discrepancy was present between mRNA expression and protein levels. MRP levels were found to be independent of sample tumor content by immunophenotyping, suggesting that the presence of normal cells had no significant impact on measurements of MRP expression. We evaluated MRP in 55 biopsy samples from 40 patients with refractory lymphoma enrolled on a trial of infusional chemotherapy (EPOCH). Pre- and post-EPOCH samples were available from 15 patients. MRP levels were also evaluated in 16 newly diagnosed, untreated lymphoma patient samples. No significant difference in MRP mRNA expression was noted between pre- and post-EPOCH groups. Also, MRP levels in the newly diagnosed patient samples were not significantly different from either pre- or post-EPOCH groups. Two of 15 paired pre- and post-EPOCH patient samples exhibited overexpression of MRP after EPOCH chemotherapy, with measured increases of 10-fold and 18-fold. We conclude that MRP overexpression is not responsible for non-P-glycoprotein (Pgp)-mediated drug resistance in the majority of these patients, although it may be important in a subset of patients. Defining this subset prospectively could aid in the development of clinical trials of MRP modulation in drug-resistant lymphoma.