Gene expression profiles obtained from fine-needle aspirations of breast cancer reliably identify routine prognostic markers and reveal large-scale molecular differences between estrogen-negative and estrogen-positive tumors.

Abstract

These results demonstrate that comprehensive TP can be performed on FNA biopsies. TPs reliably measure conventional single-gene prognostic markers such as ER and HER-2. A complex pattern of genes (not including ER) can also be used to predict clinical ER status. These results demonstrate that needle biopsy-based diagnostic microarray tests may be developed that could capture conventional prognostic information but may also contain additional clinical information that cannot currently be measured with other methods.