Gene expression profiles of estrogen receptor-positive and estrogen receptor-negative breast cancers are detectable in histologically normal breast epithelium.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Previously, we found that gene expression in histologically normal breast epithelium (NlEpi) from women at high breast cancer risk can resemble gene expression in NlEpi from cancer-containing breasts. Therefore, we hypothesized that gene expression characteristic of a cancer subtype might be seen in NlEpi of breasts containing that subtype.

Experimental design

We examined gene expression in 46 cases of microdissected NlEpi from untreated women undergoing breast cancer surgery. From 30 age-matched cases [15 estrogen receptor (ER)+, 15 ER-] we used Affymetryix U133A arrays. From 16 independent cases (9 ER+, 7 ER-), we validated selected genes using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR). We then compared gene expression between NlEpi and invasive breast cancer using four pu

SUBMITTER: Graham K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3059257 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature