Immune and tumor cell gene expression from node positive and node negative breast cancers' primary tumor, lymph nodes and peripheral blood

Analysis of purified immune and breast tumor cells from three major compartments where cancer and immune cells interact: primary tumor, tumor draining lymph nodes (tumor invaded or tumor free), and peripheral blood. The results suggests that node-positive patients’ immune regulation and functionality is down-regulated compared to node-negative patients. CD45+ Immune and ESA+ tumor cells were purified from breast cancer patients' primary tumor, tumor-draining lymph node, and peripheral blood (ficoll) and placed onto Agilent microarrays using the dye-swap method. A universal human reference was used as a reference for the patient samples.