Identifying breast cancer biomarkers

Background: Breast cancer is a heterogeneous neoplasm. Distinct subtypes of breast cancer have been defined, suggesting the existence of molecular differences contributing to their clinical outcomes. However, the molecular differences between HER2 positive and negative breast cancer tumors remain unclear. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify a gene expression profile for breast tumors based on HER2 status. Material and methods: The HER2 status was determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in 54 breast tumor samples. Using Affymetrix microarray data from these breast tumors, we established the expression profiling of breast cancer based on HER2 IHC and FISH results. To validate microarray experiment data, real-time quantitative reverse transcription-PCR was performed. Results: We found significant differences between the HER2-positive and HER2-negative breast tumor samples, which included overexpression of HER2, as well as other genes located on 17q12, and genes functionally related to migration. Conclusion: Our study shows the potential of integrated genomics profiling to shed light on the molecular knowledge of HER2-positive breast tumors. The tumor samples under study correspond to 54 primary breast carcinomas. They included 15 cases with a HER2 IHC3+ score with HER2 gene amplification, 13 cases with IHC2+ score with amplification and 13 without HER2 gene amplification, and 13 cases IHC0/1+ score without HER2 gene amplification. 12 samples of breast normal tissues from breast cancer patients were also included as a reference. Neither overexpression nor amplification of HER2 was observed.