Genetic changes in breast cancer detected by comparative genomic hybridisation.

Breast cancer is characterised by a number of genetic aberrations. Our purpose was to use comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH) to screen breast carcinomas for copy number changes: 44 ductal and 8 lobular carcinomas were studied and a large number of genetic aberrations identified. Many of these showed similarity to previous CGH results, however, a number of loci not previously shown to have undergone frequent change were identified. This included copy number gains affecting chromosomes 1p, 4q, 5q, 6q and 13q. Furthermore, we have identified 2 regions of copy number change, the gain on 5p and deletion of 16q, which correlated with lobular carcinomas. Our results highlight several areas of the genome that may be important in the molecular genetics of breast cancer.