Even if proliferation is the best prognostic indicator and for breast cancer, it is still not perfect; therefore we investigate whether a combination of microRNA’s and proliferation might give more prognostic and predictive information (regarding endocrine therapy=tamoxifen). This project is in collaboration with the department of pathology and the department of clinical epidemiology from the University of Aarhus who are responsible for a large database containing all breast cancer patients from Jutland/Denmark. From a selection (n=1682) of these patients biological material has been collected, these patients are divided over four groups (estrogen receptor positive with and without recurrence under treatment and estrogen receptor negative with and without recurrence). Both proliferation (Ki67 and PPH3) and expression of 10 different microRNAs will be assessed. These 10 microRNAs will be selected based on microRNA profiling studies from ourselves, from the Århus material and from Oslo (collaboration with prof. Naume/OSBREAC).
Figure 1: Overview of the possible involvement of candidate microRNAs in tamoxifen resistance pathways, based on the present literature search and IPA analysis. MicroRNAs miR-10a, -26a, -30c, -126, -210, -342-5p and -519a and their direct (pink lines) or indirect (dotted lines) targets.
PI: Emiel Janssen, Stavanger University Hospital.
