Project description:Analysis of purified immune and breast tumor cells from three major compartments where cancer and immune cells interact: primary tumor, tumor draining lymph nodes (tumor invaded or tumor free), and peripheral blood. The results suggests that node-positive patients’ immune regulation and functionality is down-regulated compared to node-negative patients. CD45+ Immune and ESA+ tumor cells were purified from breast cancer patients' primary tumor, tumor-draining lymph node, and peripheral blood (ficoll) and placed onto Agilent microarrays using the dye-swap method. A universal human reference was used as a reference for the patient samples.
Project description:Analysis of purified immune and breast tumor cells from three major compartments where cancer and immune cells interact: primary tumor, tumor draining lymph nodes (tumor invaded or tumor free), and peripheral blood. The results suggests that node-positive patients’ immune regulation and functionality is down-regulated compared to node-negative patients.
Project description:Lymph node involvement is a major prognostic variable in breast cancer. Whether the molecular mechanisms that drive breast cancer cells to colonize lymph nodes are shared with their capacity to form distant metastases is yet to be established. In a transcriptomic survey aimed at identifying molecular factors associated with lymph node involvement of ductal breast cancer, we found that luminal differentiation, assessed by the expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and/or progesterone receptor (PR) and GATA3, was only infrequently lost in node-positive primary tumors and in matched lymph node metastases. The transcription factor GATA3 critically determines luminal lineage specification of mammary epithelium and is widely considered a tumor and metastasis suppressor in breast cancer. Strong expression of GATA3 and ER in a majority of primary node-positive ductal breast cancer was corroborated by quantitative RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry in the initial sample set, and by immunohistochemistry in an additional set from 167 patients diagnosed of node-negative and positive primary infiltrating ductal breast cancer, including 102 samples from loco-regional lymph node metastases matched to their primary tumors, as well as 37 distant metastases. These observations suggest that loss of luminal differentiation is not a major factor driving the ability of breast cancer cells to colonize regional lymph nodes. The transcriptomic study comprises 16 samples from Lymph node metastasis from infiltrating ductal breast carcinoma, 18 samples from Primary node-positive infiltrating ductal,7 samples from Primary node-negative infiltrating ductal and 3 samples from Unaffected lymph node were included. Their RNA was isolated and prepared for hybridization to human Affymetrix GeneChip arrays.
Project description: Lymph node involvement is a major prognostic variable in breast cancer. Whether the molecular mechanisms that drive breast cancer cells to colonize lymph nodes are shared with their capacity to form distant metastases is yet to be established. In a transcriptomic survey aimed at identifying molecular factors associated with lymph node involvement of ductal breast cancer, we found that luminal differentiation, assessed by the expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and/or progesterone receptor (PR) and GATA3, was only infrequently lost in node-positive primary tumors and in matched lymph node metastases. The transcription factor GATA3 critically determines luminal lineage specification of mammary epithelium and is widely considered a tumor and metastasis suppressor in breast cancer. Strong expression of GATA3 and ER in a majority of primary node-positive ductal breast cancer was corroborated by quantitative RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry in the initial sample set, and by immunohistochemistry in an additional set from 167 patients diagnosed of node-negative and –positive primary infiltrating ductal breast cancer, including 102 samples from loco-regional lymph node metastases matched to their primary tumors, as well as 37 distant metastases. These observations suggest that loss of luminal differentiation is not a major factor driving the ability of breast cancer cells to colonize regional lymph nodes.
Project description:Tumor-infiltrating cells are considered as a homogeneous populations in the tumor microenvironment. We used single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to analyze the diversity of tumor-infiltrating cells of the tumor foci, draining lymph node and peripheral blood from patients with triple-negative breast cancer who received chemotherapy.
Project description:Analyses whether, and if so, gene expression can add prognostic information in the subgroups of patients with tumours with low or high proliferative activity. As proliferation measured with MAI and PPH3 has repeatedly been shown to be the best prognosticator in node-negative breast cancer (high sensitivity, little overtreatment). Total RNA were extracted from 94 lymph node negative breast cancer patients
Project description:Purpose: Lymph node invasion is a hallmark of breast cancer disease progression, but current treatment strategies lack guidance from lymph node biomarkers. We investigated JAGGED1 (JAG1) as a promoter of lymph node metastasis and a prognostic biomarker in metastatic lymph node specimens. Experimental Design: We used mouse models to assess the role of JAG1 expression in human and mouse breast cancer cells on lymphovascular invasion, lymph node metastatic potential, transcriptional profiles, and tumor interactions with lymphatic endothelium. We examined breast and lymph node samples from 284 breast cancer patients to determine the correlative and prognostic value of tumoral JAG1 expression in the lymph node. Results: In matched human breast tumor and lymph node samples, tumor cells that invaded lymph nodes showed higher JAG1 expression than their associated primary tumors (P value < 0.0001). In multiple models, breast cancer cells with high JAG1 expression showed increased lymphovascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, lymph node metastatic outgrowth, and migration through lymphatic endothelium. Transcriptomic analysis indicated that tumoral JAG1 regulates both juxtacrine and paracrine signaling pathways that induce inflammatory and pro-metastatic genes in lymphatic endothelium. When examining patients with identical surgical treatments, patients with lymph node JAG1 H-scorelow showed increased 5-year recurrence free survival rates than patients with lymph node JAG1 H-scorehi (87% vs 70%, P=0.016). Conclusions: JAG1 expression promotes lymphovascular invasion and lymph node metastasis in murine models. In patients, high expression of JAG1 in tumor cells in lymph node metastases predicts reduced recurrence free survival.
Project description:Purpose: Lymph node invasion is a hallmark of breast cancer disease progression, but current treatment strategies lack guidance from lymph node biomarkers. We investigated JAGGED1 (JAG1) as a promoter of lymph node metastasis and a prognostic biomarker in metastatic lymph node specimens. Experimental Design: We used mouse models to assess the role of JAG1 expression in human and mouse breast cancer cells on lymphovascular invasion, lymph node metastatic potential, transcriptional profiles, and tumor interactions with lymphatic endothelium. We examined breast and lymph node samples from 284 breast cancer patients to determine the correlative and prognostic value of tumoral JAG1 expression in the lymph node. Results: In matched human breast tumor and lymph node samples, tumor cells that invaded lymph nodes showed higher JAG1 expression than their associated primary tumors (P value < 0.0001). In multiple models, breast cancer cells with high JAG1 expression showed increased lymphovascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, lymph node metastatic outgrowth, and migration through lymphatic endothelium. Transcriptomic analysis indicated that tumoral JAG1 regulates both juxtacrine and paracrine signaling pathways that induce inflammatory and pro-metastatic genes in lymphatic endothelium. When examining patients with identical surgical treatments, patients with lymph node JAG1 H-scorelow showed increased 5-year recurrence free survival rates than patients with lymph node JAG1 H-scorehi (87% vs 70%, P=0.016). Conclusions: JAG1 expression promotes lymphovascular invasion and lymph node metastasis in murine models. In patients, high expression of JAG1 in tumor cells in lymph node metastases predicts reduced recurrence free survival.