Intra-Tumor Heterogeneity Revealed by Mass Spectrometry Imaging Is Associated with the Prognosis of Breast Cancer.

ABSTRACT: Intra-tumor heterogeneity (ITH) results from the coexistence of genetically distinct cancer cell (sub)populations, their phenotypic plasticity, and the presence of heterotypic components of the tumor microenvironment (TME). Here we addressed the potential association between phenotypic ITH revealed by mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) and the prognosis of breast cancer. Tissue specimens resected from 59 patients treated radically due to the locally advanced HER2-positive invasive ductal carcinoma were included in the study. After the on-tissue trypsin digestion of cellular proteins, peptide maps of all cancer regions (about 380,000 spectra in total) were segmented by an unsupervised approach to reveal their intrinsic heterogeneity. A high degree of similarity between spectra was observed, wh

SUBMITTER: Gawin M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8431441 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature