Gene expression data from breast ductal cells from women at normal risk or high risk for breast cancer

Breast cancer develops through the accumulation of genomic changes in the ductal epithelia cells of normal breast tissue. A determination of whether gene expression changes in ductal cells is associated with an increased risk for breast cancer is needed. We sought to determine if the global gene expression profiles of ductal cells of women at high risk for breast cancer or with cytologic ductal epithelial atypia differed from those of women at normal risk or without cytologic atypia. We used microarrays to detail the gene expression profile of breast ductal cells associated with normal risk or high risk for sporadic breast cancer and with or without cytologic epithelial atypia. We did not identify any separation of the sample groups (normal risk vs high-risk, or atypia vs nonatypia) according to expression of subgroups of genes. Breast ductal cells were collected by ductal lavage from women at normal risk or at high risk for sporadic breast cancer, and with or without cytologic atypia on cytologic analysis of ductal cells. All subjects were premenopausal. Subjects within the respective risk groups for atypia/no atypia were matched according to age and risk. Total RNA was extracted and hybridized to Affymetrix microarrays. Gene expression microarray analysis of samples from these groups was conducted.