Probabilistic graphical models relate immune status with response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer.

Probabilistic graphical models relate immune status with response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer. Oncotarget. 2018 Jun 12;9(45):27586-27594 Authors: Zapater-Moros A, Gámez-Pozo A, Prado-Vázquez G, Trilla-Fuertes L, Arevalillo JM, Díaz-Almirón M, Navarro H, Maín P, Feliú J, Zamora P, Espinosa E, Fresno Vara JÁ Abstract Breast cancer is the most frequent tumor in women and its incidence is increasing. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy has become standard of care as a complement to surgery in locally advanced or poor-prognosis early stage disease. The achievement of a complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy correlates with prognosis but it is not possible to predict who will obtain an excellent response. The molecular analysis of the tumor offers a unique opportunity to unveil predictive factors. In this work, gene expression profiling in 279 tumor samples from patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy was performed and probabilistic graphical models were used. This approach enables addressing biological and clinical questions from a Systems Biology perspective, allowing to deal with large gene expression data and their interactions. Tumors presenting complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy had a higher activity of immune related functions compared to resistant tumors. Similarly, samples from complete responders presented higher expression ​​of lymphocyte cell lineage markers, immune-activating and immune-s...
Source: Oncotarget - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Oncotarget Source Type: research