Assessment of Candidate Protein Expression in Breast Cancer Specimens

Assessment of Candidate Protein Expression in Human Breast Cancer Specimens

RATIONALE: Studying the genes expressed in samples of tumor tissue from patients with cancer may help doctors identify biomarkers related to cancer.

PURPOSE: This research study is looking at tumor tissue samples from patients who have undergone surgery for breast cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

• To determine if candidate genes display differential expression between normal and cancer breast tissues.

OUTLINE: Previously collected breast cancer tissue samples (paraffin embedded blocks) and normal adjacent tissue are used for immunohistochemistry studies of expression of candidate genes.

Inclusion Criteria:

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Diagnosis of breast cancer

• Tissue samples available

• Samples are selected based on presence or absence of tumor receptors, (i.e.; estrogen, progesterone, and HER2 receptors) and grouped into following 4 categories:

  • Estrogen receptor (ER)-positive/progesterone receptor (PR)-positive/HER2-negative
  • ER-positive/PR-positive/ HER2-positive by FISH
  • ER-negative/PR-negative/HER2-positive
  • ER-negative/PR-negative/HER2-negative(triple negative or basal-type cancers)

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Menopausal status not specified

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• Not specified

Exclusion Criteria:

• There are no exclusion criteria in this protocol