We previously identified a 70-gene expression profile associated with increased risk for developing distant metastases within 5 years [1, 2]. More recently, we studied a Wound Signature in these same tumors [3]. By combining the 70-gene expression profile to subdivide the tumours into 'good prognosis' and 'poor prognosis' tumours, and the Wound signature to subdivide tumours into 'activated' and 'quiescent' tumours, subgroups of patients with markedly different prognosis can be identified. Additional gene expression signatures are being tested in this series of tumours to arrive at an optimal prognostic classifier and to obtain improved insight into breast cancer biology.
In the study to identify predictive profiles, 10 (20%) of the 48 patients showed (near) pathological complete remission of the primary tumour after treatment [4]. No gene expression pattern correlating with response could be identified for all patients, or for the AC or AD treated groups separately.