Insight into the heterogeneity of breast cancer through next-generation sequencing
Hege G. Russnes, … , James Hicks, Anne-Lise Borresen-Dale
Hege G. Russnes, … , James Hicks, Anne-Lise Borresen-Dale
Published October 3, 2011
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 2011;121(10):3810-3818. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI57088.
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Insight into the heterogeneity of breast cancer through next-generation sequencing

Abstract

Rapid and sophisticated improvements in molecular analysis have allowed us to sequence whole human genomes as well as cancer genomes, and the findings suggest that we may be approaching the ability to individualize the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. This paradigmatic shift in approach will require clinicians and researchers to overcome several challenges including the huge spectrum of tumor types within a given cancer, as well as the cell-to-cell variations observed within tumors. This review discusses how next-generation sequencing of breast cancer genomes already reveals insight into tumor heterogeneity and how it can contribute to future breast cancer classification and management.

Authors

Hege G. Russnes, Nicholas Navin, James Hicks, Anne-Lise Borresen-Dale

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Figure 2

Subtypes of breast cancer.

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Subtypes of breast cancer. Hypothetically, subtypes of breast cancer can...
Hypothetically, subtypes of breast cancer can be viewed as a spectrum of more or less related entities. The majority are classified through histopathology as IDC NOS, but some types have defined histopathological traits. Such groups have tumors that are frequently either ER–/HER2– or ER+/HER2–, which also corresponds to the outer part of a spectrum of intrinsic subtypes, namely the basal-like and luminal A types of breast cancer. NGS of a basal-like (top), a HER2-related (second from top), a luminal B (third from top), and a luminal A tumor (bottom) show distinct structural characteristics. The circos plots show intrachromosomal rearrangements in green and interchromosomal rearrangements in purple (circos plots used with permission from Nature; ref. 43).