Transcription profiling by array of human breast tumors and adjacent cancer-free tissue to study Bmi-1 and Mel-18 expression

A total of 79 breast tumors (71 malignant tumors, 6 fibroadenomas, and 2 DCIS) were studied and compared to the reduction mammoplastic specimens of 12 healthy women as well as adjacent cancer-free tissue for 23 of the malignant tumors. Polycomb Group (PcG) proteins Bmi-1 and Mel-18 were then studied more closely first on mRNA expression level using microarray data from two of our ongoing projects and then on protein expression level using immunohistochemistry.