Gene Expression and miRNAs Profiling: Function and Regulation in Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 (HER2)-Positive Breast Cancer

Abstract

Breast cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths among women worldwide. It is a heterogeneous disease with four major molecular subtypes. One of the subtypes, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-enriched (HER2-positive) is characterized by the absence of estrogen and progesterone receptors and overexpression of HER2 receptor, and accounts for 15-20% of all breast cancers. Despite the anti-HER2 and cytotoxic chemotherapy, HER2 subtype is an aggressive disease with significant mortality. Recent advances in molecular biology techniques, including gene expression profiling, proteomics, and microRNA analysis, have been extensively used to explore the underlying mechanisms behind human breast carcinogenesis and metastasis including HER2-positive breast cancer, paving the way for developing new targeted therapies. This review focuses on recent advances on gene expression and miRNA status in HER2-positive breast cancer.

Keywords: HER2-positive breast cancer; biomarkers; breast cancer; gene expression profiling; miRNAs; microarray.

Figure 1

A case of high-grade invasive breast carcinoma (hematoxylin and eosin stain) (a) with diffuse (100% of cancer cells) and strong (3+ intensity) human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) expression (10×) (b).

Figure 2

A schematic representation of the regulatory network displaying HER2-regulators-miRNAs-targets (and crosstalk with canonical HER2 targets)-phenotypes.