title: How to best classify breast cancer: conventional and novel classifications (review).
abstract: Breast cancer is a complex disease and different classifications, mostly based on clinical and pathological features, have been used for guiding the management of patients. Most of them fail to reflect breast cancer heterogeneity, which could be the reason why the treatment fails in approximately 30% of cases. Emerging molecular studies based on gene expression profiling using DNA microarrays have defined new molecular subtypes of breast cancer associated with the cell-of-origin distinction. Thus, breast cancer has been divided into five subgroups with distinct biological features and clinical outcomes. We have tried here to confront the conventional existing classifications with this new molecular taxonomy. It is likely that using all types of classification together will help in the management of breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Marseille Cancer Institute, Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, UMR599 Inserm, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Emmanuelle
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Charafe-Jauffret
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ginestier
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Monville
authors.forename: Samira
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fekairi
authors.forename: Jocelyne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jacquemier
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Birnbaum
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bertucci
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D009626:Terminology as Topic