Karyotypic aberrations of chromosomes 16 and 17 are related to survival in patients with breast cancer

Abstract

The novel findings of this study were that only women who were disease-free had loss of 16q (E-cadherin) in association with a gain of 16p, and 17p13 (p53) loss combined with 17q12 (HER2) amplification was found only in the cancers of women who developed recurrent disease. The karyotypic changes seen in primary breast cancer seem to be associated with outcome and point to the underlying genetic events.