Kawakami et al demonstrated that the number of tandem repeats affected TS gene translation. They showed those patients homozygous for 3R alleles had higher TS protein levels and 2R/3R heterozygotes. Using in vitro expression of 2R and 3R genes they demonstrated that the increased protein levels were due to increased translational efficiency of the 3R RNA and not due to increased 3R mRNA expression. These tandem repeats are predictive of response rates of various cancers to fluoropyrimidine cancer chemotherapy. Park et al showed in metastatic colorectal cancer patients treated with capecitabine, the response rate was 14% in patients homozygous for 3R repeats, and 80% in the patients homozygous for 2R repeats. No prospective study has examined if a patient's TS genotype predicts for 5-FU toxicity.