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Carcinogenesis Advance Access published online on July 1, 2008
Carcinogenesis, doi:10.1093/carcin/bgn157
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

An Integrative Hypothesis about the Origin and Development of Sporadic and Familial Breast Cancer Subtypes

Lorenzo Melchor1 and Javier Benítez1

1 Human Genetics Group, Human Cancer Genetics Programme, Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO), Madrid, Spain

Corresponding author: Lorenzo Melchor (lmelchor{at}cnio.es)

Do breast cancer tumours have a common cell origin? Do different breast cancer molecular phenotypes arise from distinct cell types? The studies we have performed during the last few years in familial breast tumours (BRCA1, BRCA2 and non-BRCA1/2) widen questions about the development of sporadic breast cancer to hereditary breast cancer. Array-CGH studies show universal genomic aberrations in both familial and sporadic breast cancer subtypes that may be selected in the breast tumour development. The inactivation of BRCA1 seems to play a critical role in estrogen receptor (ER)-negative Cancer Stem Cells, driving the tumour development mostly towards a basal-like or, in some cases, to a luminal B phenotype, but other carcinogenetic events are proposed to explain the remaining tumour subtypes. The existence of common genomic alterations in basal-like, ERBB2 and luminal B breast tumours may suggest a common cell origin or clonal selection of these tumour subtypes, arising from an ER-negative Cancer Stem or from a Progenitor Cell. Finally, specific genomic aberrations in ER-positive tumours could provide cellular proliferation advantages when the cells are exposed to estrogen. We propose a combination of the cancer stem cell hypothesis (for the carcinogenesis processes) and the clonal selection model (in terms of tumour development). We uphold that the basal-like-, ERBB2-, and luminal B- sporadic and familial tumour subtypes have an ER-negative Breast Stem/Progenitor Cell origin, while luminal A tumours arise from an ER-positive Progenitor Cell, supporting a hierarchical breast carcinogenesis model, whereas crucial genomic imbalances are clonally selected during the tumour development.

Key Words: familial breast cancer • breast cancer subtypes • cancer stem cell • BRCA1 • array-CGH

Received February 11, 2008; revised May 26, 2008; accepted June 28, 2008.


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