Project description:Introduction: The incidence of brain metastases in cancer patients is increasing, with lung and breast cancer being the most common sources. Despite advancements in targeted therapies, the prognosis remains poor, highlighting the importance to investigate the underlying mechanisms in brain metastases. The aim of this study was to investigate the differences in the molecular mechanisms involved in brain metastasis of breast and lung cancers. In addition, we aimed to identify cancer lineage-specific druggable targets in the brain metastasis. Methods: To that aim, a cohort of 44 FFPE tissue samples, including 22 breast cancer and 22 lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) and their matched-paired brain metastases were collected. Targeted gene expression profiles of primary tumors were compared to their matched-paired brain metastases samples using nCounter PanCancer IO 360™ Panel of NanoString technologies. Pathway analysis was performed using gene set analysis (GSA) and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). The validation was performed by using Immunohistochemistry (IHC) to confirm the expression of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Results: Our results revealed the significant upregulation of cancer-related genes in primary tumors compared to their matched-paired brain metastases (adj. p ≤ 0.05). We found that upregulated differentially expressed genes in breast cancer brain metastasis (BM-BC) and brain metastasis from lung adenocarcinoma (BM-LUAD) were associated with the metabolic stress pathway, particularly related to the glycolysis. Additionally, we found that the upregulated genes in BM-BC and BM-LUAD played roles in immune response regulation, tumor growth, and proliferation. Importantly, we identified high expression of the immune checkpoint VTCN1 in BM-BC, and VISTA, IDO1, NT5E, and HDAC3 in BM-LUAD. Validation using immunohistochemistry further supported these findings. Conclusion: In conclusion, the findings highlight the significance of using matched-paired samples to identify cancer lineage-specific therapies that may improve brain metastasis patients outcomes.

Project description:Lymph-node (LN) metastases predict for high recurrence rates in breast cancer patients. Eradication of micro-metastatic tumor cells is the primary goal of adjuvant systemic treatment. Decisions regarding systemic treatment depend largely on primary tumor characteristics rather than on characteristics of their LN metastases. However, it remains unclear to what extent LN metastases, having already metastasized locally, resemble their primary breast tumors and as such will be eradicated by the systemic therapy chosen. In this study we investigated the genetic differences between primary breast cancers and their paired LN metastases using array comparative genomic hybridization analyses on a high resolution 720K Nimblegen platform. Thus far, no metastasis-specific genomic aberrations have been identified. We hypothesized that this is due to low-resolution platforms and lack of stratification on breast cancer subtypes (specifically, triple-negative (TN) versus luminal). Furthermore, we speculated that as TN tumours are known to be more genetically unstable, their LN metastases would show an increase in random copy number aberrations (CNAs). Therefore, we studied 10 primary TN breast tumour–LN pairs and 10 luminal pairs and found that all LN metastases clustered nearest to their matched tumour except for two. These two were explained by poor hybridization quality and, interestingly, the presence of two histological components in one tumour. We found no significantly altered CNAs between pairs in the whole group, nor when subdivided over subtypes; neither did we find a CNA increase in LN metastases compared to primary tumours within the TN subgroup, suggesting most CNAs are functional and not random. Our findings suggest a strong clonal relationship between primary breast tumours and its LN metastases and support the use of the primary tumor characteristics to guide adjuvant systemic chemotherapy in breast cancer patients, since primary tumors and their subsequent LN metastases seem remarkably similar, at least prior to treatment. The experiment contains 27 paired primary breast cancer samples with their lymph node metastases, analysed on a 135K whole genome CGH array

Project description:Lymph-node (LN) metastases predict for high recurrence rates in breast cancer patients. Eradication of micro-metastatic tumor cells is the primary goal of adjuvant systemic treatment. Decisions regarding systemic treatment depend largely on primary tumor characteristics rather than on characteristics of their LN metastases. However, it remains unclear to what extent LN metastases, having already metastasized locally, resemble their primary breast tumors and as such will be eradicated by the systemic therapy chosen. In this study we investigated the genetic differences between primary breast cancers and their paired LN metastases using array comparative genomic hybridization analyses on a high resolution 720K Nimblegen platform. Thus far, no metastasis-specific genomic aberrations have been identified. We hypothesized that this is due to low-resolution platforms and lack of stratification on breast cancer subtypes (specifically, triple-negative (TN) versus luminal). Furthermore, we speculated that as TN tumours are known to be more genetically unstable, their LN metastases would show an increase in random copy number aberrations (CNAs). Therefore, we studied 10 primary TN breast tumourM-bM-^@M-^SLN pairs and 10 luminal pairs and found that all LN metastases clustered nearest to their matched tumour except for two. These two were explained by poor hybridization quality and, interestingly, the presence of two histological components in one tumour. We found no significantly altered CNAs between pairs in the whole group, nor when subdivided over subtypes; neither did we find a CNA increase in LN metastases compared to primary tumours within the TN subgroup, suggesting most CNAs are functional and not random. Our findings suggest a strong clonal relationship between primary breast tumours and its LN metastases and support the use of the primary tumor characteristics to guide adjuvant systemic chemotherapy in breast cancer patients, since primary tumors and their subsequent LN metastases seem remarkably similar, at least prior to treatment. The experiment contains 20 paired primary breast cancer samples with their lymph node metastases, analysed on a 720 whole genome CGH array. Additionally, for one sample its two distinct histological subpopulations were analysed on the same platform.

Dataset Information

The proteomics data of primary TNBC and paired brain metastases

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