Nonfamilial Breast Cancer Subtypes

Over the last decade, our knowledge in somatic genetic events related to breast cancer has increased �enormously. Through usage of various genome-wide molecular approaches, it has become increasingly clear that breast cancer is a vastly heterogeneous disease. Microarray-based gene expression profiling has divided breast cancer into five distinct intrinsic subtypes termed basal-like, HER2-enriched, normal-like, luminal A, and luminal B. Importantly, these subtypes are closely correlated to clinical variables as well as different outcomes, with luminal A tumors as the good prognostic group. Initial studies using genome-wide DNA copy number data broadly partitioned breast cancers into three types, complex, amplifier, and simple, and moreover associated distinct copy number changes with the intrinsic subtypes defined by gene expression profiles. More recently, this genomic classification was refined into six genomic subtypes demonstrating strong resemblance to the intrinsic gene expression classification. Additionally, inherited BRCA1 - and BRCA2 -mutated tumors were significantly correlated to specific subtypes. In this chapter, we will review the current status regarding genomic subtypes of nonfamilial breast cancer.