Heterogeneous Chromosomal Aberrations in Intraductal Breast Lesions Adjacent to Invasive Carcinoma

Abstract

There is evidence that breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease phenotypically as well as molecular biologically. So far, heterogeneity on the molecular biological level has not been investigated in potential precursor lesions, such as ductal hyperplasia (DH) and ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). In this study we applied comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) to formalin‐fixed, paraffin‐embedded breast tissue with DH and DCIS, adjacent to invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC), to screen these potential precursor lesions for whole genomic chromosomal imbalances. Laser‐microdissection was used to select pure cell populations from the sections. Isolated DNA was amplified by degenerate oligonucleotide primed PCR (DOP‐PCR) and further processed for CGH analysis.