Project description:Purpose: The biological subtypes of breast cancer designated as Luminal A, Luminal B, HER2+/ER-, and Basal-like are clinically important for prognosis and planning treatment strategies. Recognizing that there is a continuum in both the spectrum of breast cancer disease and the risk of survival, we sought to develop a clinical test for the biological subtypes using a supervised risk classier.Methods: Microarray and real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) data from 189 samples, procured as fresh-frozen and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues, were used to statistically select prototypical samples and genes for the biological subtypes of breast cancer. Predictions for biological subtype and risk of recurrence were determined for different stages of disease, treatments, and across analytical platforms. Results: The biological subtype predictions on a large combined microarray test set showed prognostic significance across all patients (1244 subjects; p<0.0001), on node negative patients with no adjuvant systemic therapy (738 subjects; p<0.0001), and on patients treated with endocrine therapy (404 subjects; p=0.001). Analysis of a neoadjuvant chemotherapy study revealed a high pathologic complete response (pCR) rate in HER2+/ER- and Basal-like patients. The subtype and risk predications were also highly significant when using the qRT-PCR assay from archived FFPE breast cancers. Conclusion: Our risk predictor based on distance to biological subtype centroids provides a continuous risk score that applies to all stages of breast cancer given current therapies. The assay can be performed using archived breast tissues and a real-time qRT-PCR assay, thus facilitating application to retrospective cohorts and clinical samples. Keywords: reference x sample Comparison of reference samples against treatment
Project description:Purpose: The biological subtypes of breast cancer designated as Luminal A, Luminal B, HER2+/ER-, and Basal-like are clinically important for prognosis and planning treatment strategies. Recognizing that there is a continuum in both the spectrum of breast cancer disease and the risk of survival, we sought to develop a clinical test for the biological subtypes using a supervised risk classier.Methods: Microarray and real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) data from 189 samples, procured as fresh-frozen and formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues, were used to statistically select prototypical samples and genes for the biological subtypes of breast cancer. Predictions for biological subtype and risk of recurrence were determined for different stages of disease, treatments, and across analytical platforms. Results: The biological subtype predictions on a large combined microarray test set showed prognostic significance across all patients (1244 subjects; p<0.0001), on node negative patients with no adjuvant systemic therapy (738 subjects; p<0.0001), and on patients treated with endocrine therapy (404 subjects; p=0.001). Analysis of a neoadjuvant chemotherapy study revealed a high pathologic complete response (pCR) rate in HER2+/ER- and Basal-like patients. The subtype and risk predications were also highly significant when using the qRT-PCR assay from archived FFPE breast cancers. Conclusion: Our risk predictor based on distance to biological subtype centroids provides a continuous risk score that applies to all stages of breast cancer given current therapies. The assay can be performed using archived breast tissues and a real-time qRT-PCR assay, thus facilitating application to retrospective cohorts and clinical samples. Keywords: reference x sample
Project description:By combining extensive biochemical fractionation with quantitative mass spectrometry, we directly examined the composition of soluble multiprotein complexes among diverse animal models. The project has been jointly supervised by Andrew Emili and Edward M. Marcotte. Project website: http://metazoa.med.utoronto.ca
Project description:Liposarcoma is the most common soft tissue sarcoma, accounting for about 20% of cases. Liposarcoma is classified into 5 histologic subtypes that fall into 3 biological groups characterized by specific genetic alterations. To identify genes that contribute to liposarcomagenesis and to better predict outcome for patients with the disease, we undertook expression profiling of liposarcoma. U133A expression profiling was performed on 140 primary liposarcoma samples, which were randomly split into training set (n=95) and test set (n=45). A multi-gene predictor for distant recurrence-free survival (DRFS) was developed using the supervised principal component method. Expression levels of the 588 genes in the predictor were used to calculate a risk score for each patient. In validation of the predictor in the test set, patients with low risk score had a 3-year DRFS of 83% vs. 45% for high risk score patients (P=0.001). The hazard ratio for high vs. low score, adjusted for histologic subtype, was 4.42 (95% confidence interval 1.26-15.55; P=0.021). The concordance probability for risk score was 0.732. Genes related to adipogenesis, DNA replication, mitosis, and spindle assembly checkpoint control were all highly represented in the multi-gene predictor. Three genes from the predictor, TOP2A, PTK7, and CHEK1, were found to be overexpressed in liposarcoma samples of all five subtypes and in liposarcoma cell lines. Knockdown of these genes in liposarcoma cell lines reduced proliferation and invasiveness and increased apoptosis. Thus, genes identified from this predictor appear to have roles in liposarcomagenesis and have promise as therapeutic targets. In addition, the multi-gene predictor will improve risk stratification for individual patients with liposarcoma. 140 human liposarcoma specimens were profiled on Affymetrix U133A arrays per manufacturer's instructions.
Project description:Purpose HER2 gene amplification or protein overexpression (HER2+) defines a clinically challenging subgroup of breast cancer with variable prognosis and response to therapy. We aimed to investigate the heterogeneous biological appearance and clinical behavior of HER2+ tumors using molecular profiling. Materials and Methods Hierarchical clustering of gene expression data from 58 HER2-amplified tumors of various stage, histological grade and estrogen receptor (ER) status was used to construct a HER2-derived prognostic predictor that was further evaluated in several large independent breast cancer data sets. Results Unsupervised analysis identified three subtypes of HER2+ tumors with mixed stage, histological grade and ER-status. One subtype had a significantly worse clinical outcome. A prognostic predictor was created based on differentially expressed genes between the subtype with worse outcome and the other subtypes. The predictor was able to define patient groups with better and worse outcome in HER2+ breast cancer across multiple independent breast cancer data sets and identify a sizable HER2+ group with long disease-free survival and low mortality. Significant correlation to prognosis was also observed in basal-like, ER−, lymph node positive or high-grade tumors, irrespective of HER2-status. The predictor included genes associated to immune response, tumor invasion and metastasis. Conclusion The HER2-derived prognostic predictor provides further insight into the heterogeneous biology of HER2+ tumors and may become useful for improved selection of patients that need additional treatment with new drugs targeting the HER2 pathway. Array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) identified 58 breast tumors with amplification of HER2 from a larger cohort of approx 500 tumors breast. Global gene expression profiles were obtained using 70-mer oligonucleotide microarrays. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering of the 58 tumors, using Pearson correlation and complete linkage, identified three main clusters. One cluster showed significantly poorer clinical outcome. Significance of microarray (SAM) analysis was performed to identify 158 genes separating the poor outcome cluster compared to the other two clusters. Gene expression centroids, based on the 158 genes, were created for each cluster for validation in independent breast cancer data sets.
Project description:Liposarcoma is the most common soft tissue sarcoma, accounting for about 20% of cases. Liposarcoma is classified into 5 histologic subtypes that fall into 3 biological groups characterized by specific genetic alterations. To identify genes that contribute to liposarcomagenesis and to better predict outcome for patients with the disease, we undertook expression profiling of liposarcoma. U133A expression profiling was performed on 140 primary liposarcoma samples, which were randomly split into training set (n=95) and test set (n=45). A multi-gene predictor for distant recurrence-free survival (DRFS) was developed using the supervised principal component method. Expression levels of the 588 genes in the predictor were used to calculate a risk score for each patient. In validation of the predictor in the test set, patients with low risk score had a 3-year DRFS of 83% vs. 45% for high risk score patients (P=0.001). The hazard ratio for high vs. low score, adjusted for histologic subtype, was 4.42 (95% confidence interval 1.26-15.55; P=0.021). The concordance probability for risk score was 0.732. Genes related to adipogenesis, DNA replication, mitosis, and spindle assembly checkpoint control were all highly represented in the multi-gene predictor. Three genes from the predictor, TOP2A, PTK7, and CHEK1, were found to be overexpressed in liposarcoma samples of all five subtypes and in liposarcoma cell lines. Knockdown of these genes in liposarcoma cell lines reduced proliferation and invasiveness and increased apoptosis. Thus, genes identified from this predictor appear to have roles in liposarcomagenesis and have promise as therapeutic targets. In addition, the multi-gene predictor will improve risk stratification for individual patients with liposarcoma.
Project description:Purpose HER2 gene amplification or protein overexpression (HER2+) defines a clinically challenging subgroup of breast cancer with variable prognosis and response to therapy. We aimed to investigate the heterogeneous biological appearance and clinical behavior of HER2+ tumors using molecular profiling. Materials and Methods Hierarchical clustering of gene expression data from 58 HER2-amplified tumors of various stage, histological grade and estrogen receptor (ER) status was used to construct a HER2-derived prognostic predictor that was further evaluated in several large independent breast cancer data sets. Results Unsupervised analysis identified three subtypes of HER2+ tumors with mixed stage, histological grade and ER-status. One subtype had a significantly worse clinical outcome. A prognostic predictor was created based on differentially expressed genes between the subtype with worse outcome and the other subtypes. The predictor was able to define patient groups with better and worse outcome in HER2+ breast cancer across multiple independent breast cancer data sets and identify a sizable HER2+ group with long disease-free survival and low mortality. Significant correlation to prognosis was also observed in basal-like, ER−, lymph node positive or high-grade tumors, irrespective of HER2-status. The predictor included genes associated to immune response, tumor invasion and metastasis. Conclusion The HER2-derived prognostic predictor provides further insight into the heterogeneous biology of HER2+ tumors and may become useful for improved selection of patients that need additional treatment with new drugs targeting the HER2 pathway.
Project description:The prognosis of a patient with Estrogen Receptor (ER) and/or Progesterone Receptor (PR)-positive breast cancer is highly variable. Therefore, we developed a gene-expression based outcome predictor for ER+ and/or PR+ (i.e. Luminal) breast cancer patients using biological properties of the tumors. First, we identified estrogen-regulated genes using the ER+ MCF-7 breast cancer cell line treated with estrogen. The estrogen-induced gene set was then used to hierarchically cluster a training set of 65 ER+ and/or PR+ tumors into 2 group, which showed survival differences (p=0.0004). Next, supervised analyses based upon these two groups was performed and identified 822 genes that optimally defined these two groups, with the poor prognosis Group IIE tumors showing a proliferation signature and high expression of anti-apoptosis genes and the good outcome Group IE showing the high expression of estrogen and GATA3-induced genes. Centroids were created for each group and applied to ER+ and/or PR+ tumors from three published datasets. For all datasets, Kaplan-Meier survival analyses showed a statistically significant difference in Relapse-Free Survival (and Overall) between Group IE and IIE tumors. Multivariate Cox analysis of the largest test dataset also showed that this predictor was adding independent information. This study provides new biological information concerning differences within Luminal/ER+ breast cancers and a means of predicting long term outcomes in ER+ and/or PR+ breast cancer patients. Keywords: other