Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Breast Cancer Res. 2009;11(3):104. doi: 10.1186/bcr2323. Epub 2009 Jun 29.
Research that classifies breast tumors into homogenous subgroups could ultimately help to define public health prevention strategies for aggressive breast cancer subtypes. However, etiologic research on molecular breast cancer subtypes must overcome several challenges. Stratifying breast cancers into subgroups can reduce statistical power and, therefore, may require non-traditional analytical methods. Integrating results across studies is hampered by varying definitions of molecular subtypes, with some studies using triple negative status and others using specific markers to define basal-like cancers. In addition, triple negative and basal-like breast cancers appear to show strong associations with race, so the varied racial and ethnic composition of different datasets can make comparison across studies challenging. In spite of these challenges, some strong and consistent associations between triple negative or basal-like breast cancer and demographic variables are emerging, and there are hints that prevention strategies for this aggressive subtype of breast cancer may also be attainable.
将乳腺癌分类为同质亚组的研究最终可能有助于为侵袭性乳腺癌亚型定义公共卫生预防策略。然而，针对分子乳腺癌亚型的病因研究必须克服几个挑战。将乳腺癌分为亚组可能会降低统计效力，因此可能需要非传统的分析方法。由于分子亚型的定义不同，整合研究结果受到阻碍，一些研究使用三阴性状态，而另一些研究则使用特定标记物来定义基底样癌。此外，三阴性和基底样乳腺癌似乎与种族有很强的关联，因此不同数据集的不同种族和族裔构成使得跨研究比较具有挑战性。尽管存在这些挑战，但在三阴性或基底样乳腺癌与人口统计学变量之间出现了一些强有力且一致的关联，并且有迹象表明，针对这种侵袭性乳腺癌亚型的预防策略也是可行的。
