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Karenann, I am with you in needing some help here. This is what I got out of it:
The investigators were examing the relationship of chromosome position and gene expression relative to recurrence and survival in breast cancer. They divided bc patients into 4 subtypes, one of which is Her2+/ER- and another Her2+/ER+. They found that loss of expression in chromosome 16q was inversely related to survival in IDC bc. They postulate that loss of 16q expression is a truer reflection of tumor grade than observation of the tumor. They found that loss of 16q was associated with low grade, good prognosis bc and the higher the 16q expression, the higher the grade and the worse prognosis. They believe this demonstrates multiple pathways for bc progression, and that there is not necessarily a linear progression from low grade to high grade. Their explanation for this was that 16q loss often extended to the entire arm of the chromasome, and, in order for a low grade tumor to become a high grade tumor, it would have to recover some of the lost chromasome 16q. Both the Her2+/ER- and Her2+/ER+ tumors retained more 16q expression than the lower grade tumors, with corresponding worse prognosis for recurrence and survival.
Lani, how did I do?
Hopeful
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