Breast cancer is present as a spectrum of neoplasms.
We hypothesize that this high degree of heterogeneity is a reflection of involvement of different molecular pathways. Therefore, it can be detected by using genetic markers in these regions, but the markers may or may not necessarily be located within the genes. By examining LOH, the correlation between the responsive genes and the corresponding invasive carcinomas or other proliferative lesions may be studied without knowing the genes and their protein products. Under support of the National Cancer Institute and the National Human Genome Research Institute, we are incorporating 6,600 genetic markers distributed in the entire human genome into a highly effect and highly sensitive multiplex genotyping system. This system will be used for LOH analysis for individual proliferative lesions including invasive carcinomas and their possible precursors isolated from breast tumors.