title: Prognostic gene expression signatures can be measured in tissues collected in RNAlater preservative.
abstract: Gene expression signatures have the ability to serve in both prognostic and predictive capacities in patient management. The use of RNA as the starting material and the lability of this analyte, however, dictate that tissues must be snap-frozen or stored in a solution that can maintain the integrity of the RNA. We compared pairs of snap-frozen and RNAlater preservative-suspended tissue from 30 such paired lymph node-negative breast tumors and 21 such paired Dukes' B colon tumors. We assessed the correlation of gene expression profiles and prediction of recurrence based on two prognostic algorithms. Tissues stored in RNAlater preservative generated expression profiles with excellent correlation (average Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.97 and 0.94 for the breast and colon tumor pairs, respectively) compared to those produced by tissues that were snap-frozen. The correlation in the prediction of recurrence was 97% and 95% for the breast and colon tumor pairs, respectively, between these two types of tissue handling protocols. This novel finding demonstrates that prognostic signatures can be obtained from RNAlater preservative-suspended tissues, an important step in bringing gene expression signatures to the clinic.
authors.affiliation: Veridex LLC, Johnson and Johnson Company, Warren, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Dondapati
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chowdary
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lathrop
authors.forename: Joanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Skelton
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Curtin
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Briggs
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jack
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Yixin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Abhijit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mazumder
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015925:Cryopreservation / Q000379:methods; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D020871:RNA Stability; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014021:Tissue Preservation / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D012334:RNA, Neoplasm