Cellular and Molecular Profiling of Human Breast Cancer

Human cancer is a genetic disease resulted from a complex interactions betweenenvironmental elements and human genome. Approximately, 93% of all cancers areformed from the sporadic but sequential genetic mutations and the remaining 7% arethe inherited forms of cancer. Breast cancer is the most common malignancy amongwestern women. Over 220,000 women were newly diagnosed with breast cancers in2011 in USA. Approximately 45,000 of these breast cancer patients expired. Overtwenty different genetic abnormalities have been identified to be associated withformation of breast cancers. Over 2000 different genetic mutations in BRCA-1,BRCA-2 and P53 tumor suppressor genes have scientifically been reported. BRCA-1gene is located on chromosome 17q21 with 100,000 base pairs length which produce a220 kilo-daltons protein. BRCA-2 gene is located on chromosome 13q12 with 70,000base pairs length which also produces a 380 kilo-daltons protein. P53 gene is locatedon chromosome 17p13.1 which encodes a 53000 kilo-daltons protein. These threegenes are considered as tumor suppressor genes with DNA repairing capacities as wellas gene transcriptional activities. In addition to these tumor suppressor genes, othermutated genes ( i.e. PTEN, STK11, AR, ATM, NOEY2, ERB2/neu, P73, BARD1,RUD50, and Cowden gene) have been discovered to be involved with the formation ofbreast and ovarian cancers. As we completed sequencing the entire human genome in2003, the new discipline of proteomics technology initiated to complement thephysical genomic research to further discover the biological functions of over1,000,000 micro and macro-molecular proteins. The application of microarraytechnology has enabled us to analyze over 1000 gene expression and proteomicproducts at any given experiment. Thus, protein profiling of any tumor tissue canassist us to understand the protein concentration, conformation and its interactionswith other molecules. With the help of integrated molecular technology, we have beenable to better understand the biological mechanisms involved with cancer progression,and metastasis and drug resistance. One of the most promising areas in breast cancerresearch is to radio-chemo-targeting the cancer cells without damaging the normalcells. Currently, we are examining the genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics datato monitor the early detection, tumor progression and specific therapy. The currentmolecular and immune-histo-chemical parameters (SNPs, microRNAs, geneticmutations epigenetic, ER, PG, HER2 and Ki67) will allow the medical team to tailor aprecise and more effective therapies in addition to surgery.