Cancer Res. 2009 Dec 15;69(24):9507-11. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-09-2688.
Molecular signatures have begun to elucidate the biological and molecular mechanisms underlying the phenotypic diversity of breast tumors. Breast tumors are characterized by five different molecular subtypes that are associated with distinct clinical outcomes in terms of prognosis, treatment response, and site of relapse. In particular, the basal-like and luminal B subtypes of tumors are more aggressive and have a higher tendency to metastasize to the lung than do the other subtypes. Given this difference in metastatic profiles of breast tumors, the six-gene signature (6GS) that we showed to be predictive of lung relapse was reexamined in the context of the tumor subtypes. This first analysis suggested that the 6GS is a surrogate for molecular subtype, discriminating basal-like tumors rather than tumors that metastasize to the lung. Here, we show that the 6GS discriminates the two overlapping features, the basal-like subtype and the tendency to metastasize to the lung. Nevertheless, the 6GS predicts lung metastases of breast tumors independent of the molecular subtypes.
分子特征已开始阐明导致乳腺癌表型多样性的生物学和分子机制。乳腺癌的特点是有五种不同的分子亚型，这些亚型与预后、治疗反应和复发部位等临床结果密切相关。特别是基底样和 luminal B 型肿瘤更为侵袭性，比其他亚型更容易转移到肺部。鉴于乳腺癌转移谱的这种差异，我们研究了与肺复发相关的 6 基因特征（6GS）在肿瘤亚型中的表现。首次分析表明，6GS 是分子亚型的替代物，能够区分基底样肿瘤，而不是转移到肺部的肿瘤。在这里，我们证明 6GS 可以区分两种重叠特征，即基底样亚型和转移到肺部的倾向。然而，6GS 可以预测乳腺癌的肺部转移，而与分子亚型无关。
