Expression Analysis of Microdissected Inflammatory Breast Cancer

Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a unique clinical entity characterized by rapid onset of erythema and swelling of the breast often without an obvious breast mass. Many studies have examined and compared gene expression between IBC and non-IBC (nIBC), repeatedly finding clusters associated with receptor subtype, but no consistent gene signature associated with IBC has been validated. Here we examined microdissected IBC tumor cells compared to microdissected nIBC tumor cells matched based on estrogen and HER-2/neu receptor status. Gene expression profiling of 20 inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), 20 non-IBC and 5 normal was studied.