Silva Fátima, Carvalho Sílvia, Milanezi Fernanda, Schmitt Fernando C
Escola de Ciências da Saúde, Universidade do Minho, Braga.
Acta Med Port. 2008 Jul-Aug;21(4):373-8. Epub 2008 Oct 24.
Breast cancer presents as a heterogeneous disease, not only for the clinic and histology, but also in genetic expression profile. Studies using cDNA microarrays have recently led to the re-classification of invasive breast carcinomas, based on their molecular signature, into three main groups: luminal; HER2 (Human Epidermal Receptor 2) overexpressing, and basal-like. Although the latter group is the least prevalent it is the most aggressive one, lacking a target based therapy, since their main characteristic is being negative for hormonal receptors or HER2. So, it is of paramount importance to try to unravel their histogenic origin and characterize their molecular and immunohistochemical profiles. EGFR (Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor), which is overexpressed in a high proportion of these carcinomas, is a potential therapeutic target, and clinical trials with inhibitors of its activity may represent important advances in basal-like breast carcinomas therapy.
乳腺癌是一种异质性疾病，不仅在临床和组织学方面表现各异，在基因表达谱上也是如此。最近，利用cDNA微阵列进行的研究已根据其分子特征将浸润性乳腺癌重新分类为三个主要组：管腔型；HER2（人类表皮受体2）过表达型和基底样型。尽管后一组是最不常见的，但却是最具侵袭性的，由于其主要特征是激素受体或HER2呈阴性，因而缺乏基于靶点的治疗方法。所以，试图阐明它们的组织发生起源并描绘其分子和免疫组化特征至关重要。表皮生长因子受体（EGFR）在这些癌的很大一部分中过表达，是一个潜在的治疗靶点，针对其活性抑制剂的临床试验可能代表基底样乳腺癌治疗的重要进展。
