B57

Using high-throughput approaches to dissect triple negative breast cancer

Jessica Taylor, Maria Cerone, Rachael Natrajan, Jorge Reis-Filho, Christopher Lord, Alan Ashworth

The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK

Background

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease that exhibits a wide range of biological characteristics and clinical behavior. While targeted therapies exist for a number of different subtypes of breast cancer, none exist for ER, PR and HER2 negative tumours, known as the triple negative subset. We aim to use molecular profiling to define the genetic and expression changes that characterise this breast cancer subtype.

Method and Conclusion

Using our in house tiling-path BAC array and illumina human Ref-6 expression arrays, we have profiled a series of triple negative breast cancer tissues and cell lines. Using this technology, we identified a set of genes whose expression is up regulated within the recurrently gained regions and have constructed a 10k shRNA library. Transduction of triple negative breast cancer cells with shRNA expression vectors packaged as lentiviral particles provides an effective strategy for achieving high throughput gene silencing. By applying the principal of oncogene addiction, shRNAs that effect cell proliferation and viability can provide potential novel targets for use in triple negative breast cancer.