title: Heterogeneity in breast cancer and the problem of relevance of findings.
abstract: Many attempts are made to identify critical genetic events responsible for the development and progression of breast cancer. There is increasing evidence that breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, both, phenotypically as well as with respect to its molecular biologically. It is, therefore, extremely difficult to establish a diagnostically and prognostically relevant tumourigenesis model. Emerging new techniques such as microarrays, will provide us with a wealth of additional data over the next years. The precise sampling of tumour material in clearly defined histopathological lesions will be a prerequisite for the assignment of specific genetic alterations to defined stages of breast disease.
authors.affiliation: GSF-National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute of Pathology, Neuherberg, Germany. aubele@gsf.de
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aubele
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Werner
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D018740:Genetic Heterogeneity; D006801:Humans; D010641:Phenotype