A genomic ruler to assess oncogenic transition between breast tumor and stroma

Genome-wide gene expression changes were determined in histopathologically normal breast tissue in 33 women undergoing mastectomy for stage II and III primary invasive ductal carcinoma at serial distances in three dimensions from the tumor. Gene expression was determined by genome-wide mRNA analysis and subjected to metagene mRNA characterization 108 samples taken from patients at tumor, 5mm, 10mm, 15mm, 20mm from tumor were subjected to microarray analysis using HG-U133 Plus 2 affymetrix arrays