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. 2019 Apr 25;19(1):388.
doi: 10.1186/s12885-019-5608-2.

Efficacy of an RNA-based multigene assay with core needle biopsy samples for risk evaluation in hormone-positive early breast cancer

Jeeyeon Lee  1 , Eun Hye Lee  2 , Ho Yong Park  1 , Wan Wook Kim  1 , Ryu Kyung Lee  1 , Yee Soo Chae  3 , Soo Jung Lee  3 , Jee-Eun Kim  4 , Byeong-Il Kang  4 , Jee Young Park  2 , Ji-Young Park  5 , Jin Hyang Jung  6
Affiliations

Efficacy of an RNA-based multigene assay with core needle biopsy samples for risk evaluation in hormone-positive early breast cancer

Jeeyeon Lee et al. BMC Cancer. .

Abstract

Background: Gene expression profiling provides key information for prognosis of breast cancer to establish treatment strategy. However, the genetic assessment should be available before induction of treatment to be useful for clinical practice. To evaluate the reliability of using needle biopsy samples for gene assays, we compared gene-expression profiling results between core needle biopsy (CNB) samples and surgical specimens in breast cancer.

Methods: Thirty-one paired, formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded CNB and surgical specimen samples were selected from patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Total RNA was extracted from the samples and the risk classifications based on GenesWell BCT scores were compared.

Results: The BCT scores correlated between CNB samples and surgical specimens of hormone receptor-positive breast cancer (Pearson r = 0.66). The overall concordance rate of risk classification (high/low risk) was 83.9%. However, when the breast cancer does not contain intratumoral microcalcification, the concordance rate increased as 92.0%. And, when the breast cancer formed a solitary nodule (non-multifocal), the concordance rate increased up to 95.8%.

Conclusion: Risk classification using the GenesWell BCT multigene kit with CNB samples could be considered reliable, when the breast cancer is a solitary nodule without intratumoral microcalcification. Such genetic profiling results should be helpful for establishing a treatment plan for hormone receptor-positive breast cancer before treatment induction.

Keywords: Biopsy; Breast; Carcinoma; Gene.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all patients and the protocol used in this study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) Committee of Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital, Daegu, Republic of Korea (2018-06-014). And the specific inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined in the approved IRB protocol. The informed consents were obtained by written documents from all patients.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Correlations of gene expression (ΔCt value) and BCT score between paired core biopsy samples and surgical specimens in each patient. Mean correlation value was 0.76 ± 0.24 and four cases showed different risk classification between two samples
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Correlation of absolute BCT scores between the paired core needle biopsy and surgical specimen samples. Based on a threshold BCT score of 4, the risk classification of five patients (no. 17, 23, 26, 30, 36) showed discordance between needle biopsy samples and surgical specimens
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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