title: Genomic analysis: toward a new approach in breast cancer management.
abstract: Breast cancer is a clinically heterogeneous and complex disease that can affect differently individuals with seemingly identical clinicopathologic parameters. This heterogeneity is strictly linked to individuals and tumors genetic variability. Currently, the development of high-throughput technologies are proving novel tools to tackle this complexity. By DNA microarray technology, genomic analysis has been used successfully for breast carcinomas stratification into molecular subgroups with relevant implications for clinical outcomes, and detection of prognostic/treatment predictive signatures. Indeed, DNA microarray has rapidly improved becoming a powerful diagnostic tool. Information derived from these assays allows clinicians to estimate the risk for distant recurrence, and predict accurately which patients are likely to benefit from adjuvant therapy. This review will describe the state-of-the-art of genomic analysis in breast cancer and introduce the clinicians to a genomic approach to cancer management, illustrating how it can help in defying a better diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic treatment.
authors.affiliation: Functional Genomics Center, Institute of Neurological Sciences, Italian National Research Council, Catania, Italy. s.cavallaro@isn.cnr.it
authors.forename: Sebastiano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cavallaro
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Paratore
authors.forename: Femke
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: de Snoo
authors.forename: Edvige
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Salomone
authors.forename: Loredana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Villari
authors.forename: Calogero
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Buscarino
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ferraù
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Banna
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Furci
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Strazzanti
authors.forename: Rosario
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cunsolo
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pezzino
authors.forename: Santi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gangi
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Basile
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods*