This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Selaru, F. M. Articles by Meltzer, S. J. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Selaru, F. M. Articles by Meltzer, S. J.

An Unsupervised Approach to Identify Molecular Phenotypic Components Influencing Breast Cancer Features

¹ Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, and ² Departments of Pathology, ³ Surgery, ⁴ Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, and University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland

To discover a biological basis for clinical subgroupings within breast cancers, we applied principal components (PCs) analysis to cDNA microarray data from 36 breast cancers. We correlated the resulting PCs with clinical features. The 35 PCs discovered were ranked in order of their impact on gene expression patterns. Interestingly, PC 7 identified a unique subgroup consisting of estrogen receptor (ER); (+) African-American patients. This group exhibited global molecular phenotypes significantly different from both ER (-) African-American women and ER (+) or ER (-) Caucasian women (P < 0.001). Additional significant PCs included PC 4, correlating with lymph node metastasis (P = 0.04), and PC 10, with tumor stage (stage 2 versus stage 3; P = 0.007). These results provide a molecular phenotypic basis for the existence of a biologically unique subgroup comprising ER (+) breast cancers from African-American patients. Moreover, these findings illustrate the potential of PCs analysis to detect molecular phenotypic bases for relevant clinical or biological features of human tumors in general.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. K.T. Tan, L. K. Tan, K. Yu, P. H. Tan, M. Lee, L. H. Sii, C. Y. Wong, G. H. Ho, A. W.Y. Yeo, P. K.H. Chow, et al. Clinical Validation of a Customized Multiple Signature Microarray for Breast Cancer Clin. Cancer Res., January 15, 2008; 14(2): 461 - 469. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				K. Yu, C. H. Lee, P. H. Tan, and P. Tan Conservation of Breast Cancer Molecular Subtypes and Transcriptional Patterns of Tumor Progression Across Distinct Ethnic Populations Clin. Cancer Res., August 15, 2004; 10(16): 5508 - 5517. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]