High-resolution aCGH analyses of copy number alterations in HER2-amplified breast cancer

HER2 gene amplification and protein overexpression (HER2+) define a clinically challenging subgroup of breast cancer with variable prognosis and response to therapy. Although gene expression profiling has identified an ERBB2 molecular subtype of breast cancer, it is clear that HER2+ tumors reside in all molecular subtypes and represent a genomically and biologically heterogeneous group. Genome-wide DNA copy number profiling, using BAC array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) were performed on 200 tumors with mixed clinical characteristics and amplification of HER2. Genomic Identification of Significant Targets in Cancer (GISTIC) was used to identify significant copy number aberrations (CNAs) in HER2+ tumors. This analysis sheds further light on the genomically complex and heterogeneous nature of HER2+ tumors in relation to other subgroups of breast cancer. Genomic profiling of 200 breast tumors using tiling BAC aCGH (32K, 33K and 38K). A number of cases were hybridized as replicates or dye-swaps.