Gene Expression-based Prognostic and Predictive Markers for Breast Cancer: a Primer for Practicing Pathologists

Overview

Journal Arch Pathol Lab Med

Specialty Pathology

Date 2009 Jun 5

PMID 19492877

Citations 3

Authors

Chungyeul Kim

Yusuke Taniyama

Soonmyung Paik

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Context: Gene expression-based prognostic assays for breast cancer are now available as commercial reference laboratory tests covered by insurance.

Objective: To provide practicing pathologists with information about the nature of these assays, differences among them, and their use by clinical oncologists in the management of patients diagnosed with breast cancer.

Data Sources: Review of literature and unpublished data from the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project. This review focused on a general conceptual description of the technology behind these assays and differences among them to aid understanding by pathologists in practice.

Conclusions: While these assays are clinically useful, they are still evolving. The future development of gene expression-based markers will need to be more clinical-context-specific to be clinically useful.

Citing Articles

Predictive and prognostic molecular markers for cancer medicine.

Mehta S, Shelling A, Muthukaruppan A, Lasham A, Blenkiron C, Laking G Ther Adv Med Oncol. 2011; 2(2):125-48.

PMID: 21789130 PMC: 3126011. DOI: 10.1177/1758834009360519.

Gene-expression-based prognostic assays for breast cancer.

Kim C, Paik S Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2010; 7(6):340-7.

PMID: 20440284 DOI: 10.1038/nrclinonc.2010.61.

Pharmacogenomic discovery using cell-based models.

Welsh M, Mangravite L, Medina M, Tantisira K, Zhang W, Huang R Pharmacol Rev. 2009; 61(4):413-29.

PMID: 20038569 PMC: 2802425. DOI: 10.1124/pr.109.001461.

References

Paik S, Shak S, Tang G, Kim C, Baker J, Cronin M . A multigene assay to predict recurrence of tamoxifen-treated, node-negative breast cancer. N Engl J Med. 2004; 351(27):2817-26. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa041588. View

Fan C, Oh D, Wessels L, Weigelt B, Nuyten D, Nobel A . Concordance among gene-expression-based predictors for breast cancer. N Engl J Med. 2006; 355(6):560-9. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa052933. View

Fisher B, Jeong J, Bryant J, Anderson S, Dignam J, Fisher E . Treatment of lymph-node-negative, oestrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer: long-term findings from National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project randomised clinical trials. Lancet. 2004; 364(9437):858-68. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(04)16981-X. View

Paik S, Tang G, Shak S, Kim C, Baker J, Kim W . Gene expression and benefit of chemotherapy in women with node-negative, estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2006; 24(23):3726-34. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2005.04.7985. View

Perou C, Sorlie T, Eisen M, van de Rijn M, Jeffrey S, Rees C . Molecular portraits of human breast tumours. Nature. 2000; 406(6797):747-52. DOI: 10.1038/35021093. View

Ravdin P, Siminoff L, Davis G, Mercer M, Hewlett J, Gerson N . Computer program to assist in making decisions about adjuvant therapy for women with early breast cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2001; 19(4):980-91. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2001.19.4.980. View

Schena M, Shalon D, Davis R, Brown P . Quantitative monitoring of gene expression patterns with a complementary DNA microarray. Science. 1995; 270(5235):467-70. DOI: 10.1126/science.270.5235.467. View

Amat S, Penault-Llorca F, Cure H, Le Bouedec G, Achard J, Van Praagh I . Scarff-Bloom-Richardson (SBR) grading: a pleiotropic marker of chemosensitivity in invasive ductal breast carcinomas treated by neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Int J Oncol. 2002; 20(4):791-6. View

Simon J, Szankasi P, Nguyen D, LUDLOW C, Dunstan H, Roberts C . Differential toxicities of anticancer agents among DNA repair and checkpoint mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Cancer Res. 2000; 60(2):328-33. View

10.

van de Vijver M, He Y, Vant Veer L, Dai H, Hart A, Voskuil D . A gene-expression signature as a predictor of survival in breast cancer. N Engl J Med. 2002; 347(25):1999-2009. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa021967. View

11.

Harbeck N, Kates R, Schmitt M, Gauger K, Kiechle M, Janicke F . Urokinase-type plasminogen activator and its inhibitor type 1 predict disease outcome and therapy response in primary breast cancer. Clin Breast Cancer. 2004; 5(5):348-52. DOI: 10.3816/cbc.2004.n.040. View

12.

Goldhirsch A, Wood W, Gelber R, Coates A, Thurlimann B, Senn H . Meeting highlights: updated international expert consensus on the primary therapy of early breast cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2003; 21(17):3357-65. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2003.04.576. View

13.

Simon R, Radmacher M, Dobbin K, McShane L . Pitfalls in the use of DNA microarray data for diagnostic and prognostic classification. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2003; 95(1):14-8. DOI: 10.1093/jnci/95.1.14. View

14.

Olivotto I, Bajdik C, Ravdin P, Speers C, Coldman A, Norris B . Population-based validation of the prognostic model ADJUVANT! for early breast cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2005; 23(12):2716-25. DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2005.06.178. View

15.

J van t Veer L, Dai H, van de Vijver M, He Y, Hart A, Mao M . Gene expression profiling predicts clinical outcome of breast cancer. Nature. 2002; 415(6871):530-6. DOI: 10.1038/415530a. View

16.

Sparano J . TAILORx: trial assigning individualized options for treatment (Rx). Clin Breast Cancer. 2006; 7(4):347-50. DOI: 10.3816/CBC.2006.n.051. View

17.

Masuda N, Ohnishi T, Kawamoto S, Monden M, Okubo K . Analysis of chemical modification of RNA from formalin-fixed samples and optimization of molecular biology applications for such samples. Nucleic Acids Res. 1999; 27(22):4436-43. PMC: 148727. DOI: 10.1093/nar/27.22.4436. View

18.

Cronin M, Pho M, Dutta D, Stephans J, Shak S, Kiefer M . Measurement of gene expression in archival paraffin-embedded tissues: development and performance of a 92-gene reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay. Am J Pathol. 2003; 164(1):35-42. PMC: 1602211. DOI: 10.1016/S0002-9440(10)63093-3. View

19.

Carlson R, Edge S, Theriault R . NCCN: Breast cancer. Cancer Control. 2002; 8(6 Suppl 2):54-61. View