Clinically relevant morphological structures in breast cancer represent transcriptionally distinct tumor cell populations with varied degrees of epithelial-mesenchymal transition and CD44⁺CD24^- stemness.

ABSTRACT: Intratumor morphological heterogeneity in breast cancer is represented by different morphological structures (tubular, alveolar, solid, trabecular, and discrete) and contributes to poor prognosis; however, the mechanisms involved remain unclear. In this study, we performed 3D imaging, laser microdissection-assisted array comparative genomic hybridization and gene expression microarray analysis of different morphological structures and examined their association with the standard immunohistochemistry scorings and CD44⁺CD24^- cancer stem cells. We found that the intratumor morphological heterogeneity is not associated with chromosomal aberrations. By contrast, morphological structures were characterized by specific gene expression profiles and signaling pathways and sign

SUBMITTER: Denisov EV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5617414 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature