Luminal B breast cancer subtype displays a dichotomic epigenetic pattern

Purpose In breast cancer, specific aberrant methylation patterns have been associated with different BC histologic and molecular subtypes and data suggest that DNA methylation profiles may play an important role in the development and progression of distinct breast subtypes. However, the epigenome of the newly defined luminal B and luminal B-HER2 positive breast cancers has not yet been characterized. Therefore the main goal of the current study is to deciphered the aberrant DNA methylation profiles associated with these breast cancer subtypes. Experimental Design 29 luminal subtype breast cancer samples along with 8 control tissue were epigenetically interrogated using the HumanMethylation27 DNA Analysis BeadChip. Results Luminal B-HER2 + subtype displays the most aggressive phenotype and shows the highest number of aberrantly methylated CpG markers. On the other hand, the luminal B subtype harbours an heterogeneous DNA methylation profile that seems to be half way between the luminal A and luminalB-HER2+ subtypes. Conclusions The heterogeneous epigenetic and genetic profile of the luminal B subtype, might indicate that a further stratification has to be done for this specific breast cancer subtype. Bisulphite converted DNA from the 29 breast cancer samples and 8 control samples were hybridised to the Illumina Infinium 27 k Human Methylation Beadchip v1.217