Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) analysis of chromosomal aberrations in Iranian patients with invasive ductal carcinoma breast cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in women; however, due to the complexity of chromosomal changes, limited data are available regarding chromosomal constitution. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, Comparative Genomic Hybridization (CGH) was used on 16 Iranian patients diagnosed with invasive ductal breast carcinomas. RESULTS: 12 samples had abnormal CGH results (75%), including 21 types of chromosomal imbalance. The most prevalent were chromosomal gain of +1q, +17q, +8q and chromosomal loss of -13q. All three cases with DNA loss at chromosome 13q (-13q) had lymph node metastasis. CONCLUSIONS: CGH is able to detect chromosomal abnormalities which are difficult to identify by conventional cytogenetic techniques. More studies on a larger sample size may help to confirm or rule out any possible correlation between 13q monosomy and lymph node metastasis, which could result in establishing new strategies for prevention and early detection of invasive breast tumors.

Combining mammaglobin and carcinoembryonic mRNA markers for early detection of micrometastases from breast cancers--a molecular study of 59 patients.

INTRODUCTION: As many as 30% of node-negative breast cancer patients relapse within five years, suggesting that current histological detection methods are inadequate for identifying metastatic disease. Detecting small number of cancer cells in the breast tissue or lymph node by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays using a combination of tissue and cancer specific markers might be very useful in the early detection or monitoring of the treatment. Mammaglobin is a member of the uteroglobin gene family and appears to be expressed only in breast tissue. Carcinoembryonic antigen has been the preferred molecular marker for detection of micro metastases in lymph nodes in almost all carcinomas. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Samples were collected from randomly chosen breast cancer patients undergoing modified mastectomy or breast conserving surgery between September 2003 and July 2004. RT-PCR was applied to study the expression of MMG and CEA markers. Breast cancer micrometastases in axillary lymph nodes were also assessed. RESULTS: The MMG marker was positive in 9/10 normal breast tissues, 3/3 breast fibroadenomas and 37/39 of breast carcinoma tissues, giving an overall sensitivity of 94%. The sensitivity was 80% for metastatic lymph node samples. On the other hand CEA showed 95% sensitivity for malignant breast tumors and 100% sensitivity for metastatic lymph nodes. CONCLUSIONS: RT-PCR using a combination of MMG and CEA markers is a powerful tool to complement current routine histopathology techniques for detection of breast cancer metastasis in axillary nodes.