Cathepsin-D and nm23 provide the predictive value of response to anthracycline-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer CHEN Yi-zuo*, CHEN Can-ming, FEI Fei, et al. *Department of Breast Surgery， Cancer Hospital，Fudan University.Department of Oncology, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University,Shanghai 200032，China Corresponding author: WU Jiong, E-mail: wujiong1122@vip.sina.com Abstract Objective To investigate the predictive value of biological markers for responsiveness to anthracyline-based regimen in neoadjuvant systemic therapy. Methods Post-operative paraffin-embedded tumor samples from 173 breast cancer patients were examined for expression of ER、PR、Her-2/neu、and other 15 markers by immunohistochemistry, to analyze the predictive value of these biological markers for response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Results For the primary tumor, the clinical objective response was 66.47%， 29.48%SD,and 4.05% PD. Pathological complete response was found in 3 cases(1.73%).Negative nm23, and loss of Cathepsin-D were significantly predictive for an effective response to anthracycline-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, only the Cathepsin-D status was found for independent predictive value. Conclusion Loss of Cathepsin-D independently predicts the response to anthracycline-based regimen.