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Review
. 2001;3(2):77-80.
doi: 10.1186/bcr274. Epub 2000 Dec 18.

Molecular profiling of breast cancer: portraits but not physiognomy

J D Brenton  1 , S A Aparicio, C Caldas
Affiliations
Review

Molecular profiling of breast cancer: portraits but not physiognomy

J D Brenton et al. Breast Cancer Res. 2001.

Abstract

Breast cancers differ in response to treatment and may have a divergent clinical course despite having a similar histopathological appearance. New technology using DNA microarrays provides a systematic method to identify key markers for prognosis and treatment response by profiling thousands of genes expressed in a single cancer. Microarray profiling of 38 invasive breast cancers now confirms striking molecular differences between ductal carcinoma specimens and suggests a new classification for oestrogen-receptor negative breast cancer. Future approaches will need to include methods for high-throughput clinical validation and the ability to analyze microscopic samples.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Variation in expression of 1753 genes in 84 experimental samples. Data are presented in a matrix format: each row represents a single gene, and each column an experimental sample. In each sample, the ratio of the abundance of transcripts of each gene to the median abundance of the gene's transcript among all the cell lines (left panel), or to its median abundance across all tissue samples (right panel), is represented by the colour of the corresponding cell in the matrix. Green squares, transcript levels below the median; black squares, transcript levels equal to the median; red squares, transcript levels greater than the median; grey squares, technically inadequate or missing data. Colour saturation reflects the magnitude of the ratio relative to the median for each set of samples (see scale, bottom left). (a) Dendrogram representing similarities in the expression patterns between experimental samples. All 'before and after' chemotherapy pairs that were clustered on terminal branches are highlighted in red; the two primary tumour/lymph node metastasis pairs in light blue; the three clustered normal normal breast samples in light green. Branches representing the four breast luminal epithelial cell lines are shown in dark blue; breast basal epithelial cell lines in orange, the endothelial cell lines in dark yellow, the mesenchymal-like cell lines in dark green, and the lymphocyte-derived cell lines in brown. (b) Scaled-down representation of the 1753-gene cluster diagram; coloured bars to the right identify the locations of the inserts displayed in c-j. (c) Endothelial cell gene expression cluster; (d) stromal/fibroblast cluster; (e) breast basal epithelial cluster; (f) B-cell cluster; (g) adipose-enriched/normal breast; (h) macrophage; (i) T-cell; (j) breast luminal epithelial cell. The Figure and legend are reproduced here, with permission, from [2]. The "supplementary information Figure 4" referred to above is also part of [2], and can be accessed there. The colour mentioned in the legend can be viewed online at http://breast-cancer-research.com/3/2
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