Molecular Intrinsic versus Clinical Subtyping in Breast Cancer: A Comprehensive Review.

Molecular Intrinsic versus Clinical Subtyping in Breast Cancer: A Comprehensive Review. Clin Genet. 2020 Dec 19;: Authors: Szymiczek A, Lone A, Akbari MR Abstract Breast cancer is one of the primary causes of death in women, and it is the most common type of cancer in Canada and many other countries around the world 1,2 . It is estimated that in 2020, breast cancer cases would account for 25% of total new cancer cases in Canada 1,3 . Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease manifesting diversity at the molecular, histological and clinical level 4 . This heterogeneity resulted in trying to classify breast cancer patients using different approaches. The purpose of breast cancer classification is to determine the optimal treatment plan for patients, based on the known associations of the underlying tumour biology and treatment sensitivities. The current approach to the classification of breast cancer, which categorizes this disease into clinical subtypes based on the detection of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) and proliferation marker Ki67, is not ideal. This is manifested as a heterogeneity of therapeutic responses and outcomes within the clinical subtypes 5 . The immunohistochemical staining, which is employed as the principal method for routine clinical analysis of these biomarkers, has considerable limitations. The newer classification model, based on gene expressi...
Source: Clinical Genetics - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Clin Genet Source Type: research