Review
Microarrays in the 2010s: the contribution of microarray-based gene expression profiling to breast cancer classification, prognostication and prediction
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* Corresponding authors: Britta Weigelt britta.weigelt@cancer.org.uk - Jorge S Reis-Filho jorge.reis-filho@icr.ac.uk
1 Molecular Pathology Team, Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre, Institute of Cancer Research, 237 Fulham Road, London, SW3 6JB, UK
2 Signal Transduction Laboratory, Cancer Research UK London Research Institute, 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3LY, UK
Breast Cancer Research 2011, 13:212 doi:10.1186/bcr2890
Published: 27 June 2011Abstract
Breast cancer comprises a collection of diseases with distinctive clinical, histopathological, and molecular features. Importantly, tumors with similar histological features may display disparate clinical behaviors. Gene expression profiling using microarray technologies has improved our understanding of breast cancer biology and has led to the development of a breast cancer molecular taxonomy and of multigene 'signatures' to predict outcome and response to systemic therapies. The use of these prognostic and predictive signatures in routine clinical decision-making remains controversial. Here, we review the clinical relevance of microarray-based profiling of breast cancer and discuss its impact on patient management.