Expression profiling as a prognostic and predictive factor in breast cancer

Excerpt

Microarray gene expression profiling combined with advanced bioinformatics is beginning to show its power in delineating disease entities that are otherwise indistinguishable. This refinement in tumor classification allows a more accurate prediction of outcome of disease for patients that present with the same stage of disease based on conventional clinical and histopathological criteria. Gene activities determining the biological behaviour of the tumor may indeed be more likely to reflect the aggressiveness of the tumor than general parameters such as tumor size, age of the patient, or even tumor grade. The immediate clinical consequences are therefore that treatment schemes can be tailored based on the gene activity patterns of the primary tumor. …