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High-resolution genomic and expression analyses of copy number alterations in HER2-amplified breast cancer

Staaf, Johan LU orcid ; Jönsson, Göran B LU ; Ringnér, Markus LU orcid ; Vallon-Christersson, Johan LU orcid ; Grabau, Dorthe LU ; Arason, Adalgeir ; Gunnarsson, Haukur ; Agnarsson, Bjarni A. ; Malmström, Per LU and Johannsson, Oskar Th , et al. (2010) In Breast Cancer Research 12(3).
Abstract
Introduction: HER2 gene amplification and protein overexpression (HER2+) define a clinically challenging subgroup of breast cancer with variable prognosis and response to therapy. Although gene expression profiling has identified an ERBB2 molecular subtype of breast cancer, it is clear that HER2+ tumors reside in all molecular subtypes and represent a genomically and biologically heterogeneous group, needed to be further characterized in large sample sets. Methods: Genome-wide DNA copy number profiling, using bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH), and global gene expression profiling were performed on 200 and 87 HER2+ tumors, respectively. Genomic Identification of Significant Targets in... (More)
Introduction: HER2 gene amplification and protein overexpression (HER2+) define a clinically challenging subgroup of breast cancer with variable prognosis and response to therapy. Although gene expression profiling has identified an ERBB2 molecular subtype of breast cancer, it is clear that HER2+ tumors reside in all molecular subtypes and represent a genomically and biologically heterogeneous group, needed to be further characterized in large sample sets. Methods: Genome-wide DNA copy number profiling, using bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH), and global gene expression profiling were performed on 200 and 87 HER2+ tumors, respectively. Genomic Identification of Significant Targets in Cancer (GISTIC) was used to identify significant copy number alterations (CNAs) in HER2+ tumors, which were related to a set of 554 non-HER2 amplified (HER2-) breast tumors. High-resolution oligonucleotide aCGH was used to delineate the 17q12-q21 region in high detail. Results: The HER2-amplicon was narrowed to an 85.92 kbp region including the TCAP, PNMT, PERLD1, HER2, C17orf37 and GRB7 genes, and higher HER2 copy numbers indicated worse prognosis. In 31% of HER2+ tumors the amplicon extended to TOP2A, defining a subgroup of HER2+ breast cancer associated with estrogen receptor-positive status and with a trend of better survival than HER2+ breast cancers with deleted (18%) or neutral TOP2A (51%). HER2+ tumors were clearly distinguished from HER2-tumors by the presence of recurrent high-level amplifications and firestorm patterns on chromosome 17q. While there was no significant difference between HER2+ and HER2-tumors regarding the incidence of other recurrent high-level amplifications, differences in the co-amplification pattern were observed, as shown by the almost mutually exclusive occurrence of 8p12, 11q13 and 20q13 amplification in HER2+ tumors. GISTIC analysis identified 117 significant CNAs across all autosomes. Supervised analyses revealed: (1) significant CNAs separating HER2+ tumors stratified by clinical variables, and (2) CNAs separating HER2+ from HER2-tumors. Conclusions: We have performed a comprehensive survey of CNAs in HER2+ breast tumors, pinpointing significant genomic alterations including both known and potentially novel therapeutic targets. Our analysis sheds further light on the genomically complex and heterogeneous nature of HER2+ tumors in relation to other subgroups of breast cancer. (Less)
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Breast Cancer Research
volume
12
issue
3
article number
R25
publisher
BioMed Central (BMC)
external identifiers
  • wos:000285689000001
  • scopus:77957940993
ISSN
1465-5411
DOI
10.1186/bcr2568
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
0f3a31e2-7127-4480-9b4a-c5feb863eec2 (old id 1814990)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 09:50:48
date last changed
2022-02-17 03:49:49
@article{0f3a31e2-7127-4480-9b4a-c5feb863eec2,
  abstract     = {{Introduction: HER2 gene amplification and protein overexpression (HER2+) define a clinically challenging subgroup of breast cancer with variable prognosis and response to therapy. Although gene expression profiling has identified an ERBB2 molecular subtype of breast cancer, it is clear that HER2+ tumors reside in all molecular subtypes and represent a genomically and biologically heterogeneous group, needed to be further characterized in large sample sets. Methods: Genome-wide DNA copy number profiling, using bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH), and global gene expression profiling were performed on 200 and 87 HER2+ tumors, respectively. Genomic Identification of Significant Targets in Cancer (GISTIC) was used to identify significant copy number alterations (CNAs) in HER2+ tumors, which were related to a set of 554 non-HER2 amplified (HER2-) breast tumors. High-resolution oligonucleotide aCGH was used to delineate the 17q12-q21 region in high detail. Results: The HER2-amplicon was narrowed to an 85.92 kbp region including the TCAP, PNMT, PERLD1, HER2, C17orf37 and GRB7 genes, and higher HER2 copy numbers indicated worse prognosis. In 31% of HER2+ tumors the amplicon extended to TOP2A, defining a subgroup of HER2+ breast cancer associated with estrogen receptor-positive status and with a trend of better survival than HER2+ breast cancers with deleted (18%) or neutral TOP2A (51%). HER2+ tumors were clearly distinguished from HER2-tumors by the presence of recurrent high-level amplifications and firestorm patterns on chromosome 17q. While there was no significant difference between HER2+ and HER2-tumors regarding the incidence of other recurrent high-level amplifications, differences in the co-amplification pattern were observed, as shown by the almost mutually exclusive occurrence of 8p12, 11q13 and 20q13 amplification in HER2+ tumors. GISTIC analysis identified 117 significant CNAs across all autosomes. Supervised analyses revealed: (1) significant CNAs separating HER2+ tumors stratified by clinical variables, and (2) CNAs separating HER2+ from HER2-tumors. Conclusions: We have performed a comprehensive survey of CNAs in HER2+ breast tumors, pinpointing significant genomic alterations including both known and potentially novel therapeutic targets. Our analysis sheds further light on the genomically complex and heterogeneous nature of HER2+ tumors in relation to other subgroups of breast cancer.}},
  author       = {{Staaf, Johan and Jönsson, Göran B and Ringnér, Markus and Vallon-Christersson, Johan and Grabau, Dorthe and Arason, Adalgeir and Gunnarsson, Haukur and Agnarsson, Bjarni A. and Malmström, Per and Johannsson, Oskar Th and Loman, Niklas and Barkardottir, Rosa B. and Borg, Åke}},
  issn         = {{1465-5411}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  publisher    = {{BioMed Central (BMC)}},
  series       = {{Breast Cancer Research}},
  title        = {{High-resolution genomic and expression analyses of copy number alterations in HER2-amplified breast cancer}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/1312613/1852050.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1186/bcr2568}},
  volume       = {{12}},
  year         = {{2010}},
}