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  • Oncogenomics
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Lobular and ductal carcinomas of the breast have distinct genomic and expression profiles

Oncogene volume 27, pages 5359–5372 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Invasive ductal carcinomas (IDCs) and invasive lobular carcinomas (ILCs) are the two major pathological types of breast cancer. Epidemiological and histoclinical data suggest biological differences, but little is known about the molecular alterations involved in ILCs. We undertook a comparative large-scale study by both array-compared genomic hybridization and cDNA microarray of a set of 50 breast tumors (21 classic ILCs and 29 IDCs) selected on homogeneous histoclinical criteria. Results were validated on independent tumor sets, as well as by quantitative RT–PCR. ILCs and IDCs presented differences at both the genomic and expression levels with ILCs being less rearranged and heterogeneous than IDCs. Supervised analysis defined a 75-BACs signature discriminating accurately ILCs from IDCs. Expression profiles identified two subgroups of ILCs: typical ILCs (∼50%), which were homogeneous and displayed a normal-like molecular pattern, and atypical ILCs, more heterogeneous with features intermediate between ILCs and IDCs. Supervised analysis identified a 75-gene expression signature that discriminated ILCs from IDCs, with many genes involved in cell adhesion, motility, apoptosis, protein folding, extracellular matrix and protein phosphorylation. Although ILCs and IDCs share common alterations, our data show that ILCs and IDCs could be distinguished on the basis of their genomic and expression profiles suggesting that they evolve along distinct genetic pathways.

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Acknowledgements

This study was developed as part of a joint program ‘Développement d’outils de diagnostic moléculaire en Cancérologie: Applications aux cancers du sein' Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur, de la Recherche et de la Technologie and Fédération Nationale des Centres de Lutte Contre le Cancer and was supported by funds from INSERM, the Association de Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC), grant 5102, Institut National du Cancer, Cancéropoles PACA and Grand Sud Ouest. The help of the Génopole Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon is gratefully acknowledged. We thank Pr Dominique Maraninchi and Dr Claude Mawas for setting up this work and Mrs Sophie Tourpin for technical help.

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Author notes

  1. F Bertucci and B Orsetti: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INSERM UMR891, Centre de Recherche en Cancérologie de Marseille, Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Marseille, France

    F Bertucci, P Finetti, J Jacquemier & D Birnbaum

  2. INSERM U896, Institut de Recherche en Cancérologie de Montpellier, CRLC Val d'Aurelle-Paul Lamarque, Montpellier, France

    B Orsetti, V Nègre, C Rougé, F Bibeau, L Ursule & C Theillet

  3. Université Paris XI, UPRES 3535, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France

    J-C Ahomadegbe

  4. CRLC Val d'Aurelle-Paul Larmarque, Laboratoire d'Anatomopathologie, Montpellier, France

    F Bibeau

  5. Département de Biopathologie, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France

    M-C Mathieu & J Bénard

  6. Centre Léon Bérard, laboratoire d'Anatomopathologie, Lyon, France

    I Treilleux

  7. Ipsogen S.A., Marseille-Luminy, France

    A Martinec

  8. Centre Léon Bérard, laboratoire d'Oncologie Moléculaire, Lyon, France

    Q Wang & A Puisieux

  9. CNRS UMR 8126, Institut Gustave Roussy, Villejuif, France

    J Bénard

  10. INSERM U590, Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon, France

    A Puisieux

Authors
  1. F Bertucci
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  2. B Orsetti
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  3. V Nègre
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  4. P Finetti
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  7. F Bibeau
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  8. M-C Mathieu
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  9. I Treilleux
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  10. J Jacquemier
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  11. L Ursule
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  12. A Martinec
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  14. J Bénard
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  15. A Puisieux
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  16. D Birnbaum
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  17. C Theillet
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C Theillet.

Additional information

Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Oncogene website (http://www.nature.com/onc).

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Bertucci, F., Orsetti, B., Nègre, V. et al. Lobular and ductal carcinomas of the breast have distinct genomic and expression profiles. Oncogene 27, 5359–5372 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2008.158

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/onc.2008.158

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