title: Molecular characterisation of breast cancer patients at high and low recurrence risk.
abstract: The ability to predict the recurrence risk in breast cancer patients is not available for the individual. It is commonly accepted that the different clinical course of tumours with identical histology and stage are the result of differences at the molecular level. This case study of 80 patients affected by breast cancer looked at the messenger ribonucleic acid expression level of 22 genes, by using quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Our results showed that a panel of seven genes is associated to patients' survival. Moreover, the combination of two couples of genes is able to define short- and long-living cohorts of patients. In particular, our findings strongly demonstrate that retinoblastoma (RB) and cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) on one side and cytokeratin 8 (CK8) and epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) on the other may affect the clinical course of the disease in 56% of patients. Groups characterised by low RB and high CDK2 as with low CK8 and high HER2 have a higher risk of recurrences and death in 5 years. The identification of these sub-groups of patients with higher risk of early relapse could have further involvement in the selection of the cases to submit to therapy against HER2 or CDK2 as a possible therapy target.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical, Morphological and Technological Sciences, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bonin
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brunetti
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Benedetti
authors.forename: Isabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dotti
authors.forename: Nader
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gorji
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stanta
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D051357:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 2 / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D053533:Keratin-8 / Q000235:genetics; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000235:genetics; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt / Q000235:genetics; D019908:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-raf / Q000235:genetics; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics; D016160:Retinoblastoma Protein / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D051357:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 2; D053533:Keratin-8; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; D019908:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-raf; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D016160:Retinoblastoma Protein; C491754:AKT3 protein, human; C495894:CDK2 protein, human