Abstract 3851: Molecular profiling of aggressive breast cancer in a unique patient population from Kenya

Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA Breast cancer rates of incidence and mortality vary significantly between different nations and racial groups. African nations have the highest breast cancer mortality rates in the world, even though the incidence rates are below those of many other nations. In Kenya, breast cancer tumors are often highly aggressive at presentation and occur at a significantly earlier age (as early as the teens and 20s), relative to North American women. In the United States, non-Hispanic white women have the highest incidence of breast cancer, but African-American women have the highest mortality. These striking racial disparities are due not only to inequities in screening and treatment but also to variations in the rates of aggressive breast cancer. Differences in disease progression suggest that aggressive breast cancer tumors may harbor components of a unique molecular signature that result in racial disparities. We aim to identify drivers of poor prognosis breast cancer growth by identifying molecular signatures with high prognostic value from tumor samples of patients with aggressive disease. We hypothesize that changes in the DNA, RNA, and post-translational protein regulation contribute to aggressive disease. To characterize the tumors from this patient population, we used samples from >100 Kenyan breast tumor tissue samples. We stained tissue microarray sections for clinical breast cancer markers including lymphocyte markers. Using DNA and RNA that we isolated from these patient-derived breast tumors, we are characterizing these tumors by analyzing them for gene expression, genome sequencing, proteomics, and pathology analysis coupled with bioinformatics to develop signatures of aggressive breast cancer growth and metastasis. Our data will be foundational in understanding how aggressive, lethal breast tumors of Kenyan breast cancer patients differ from less aggressive tumors and will enhance our ability to diagnose and eliminate outcome disparities in breast cancer patients. Citation Format: Rispah Torrorey, Maggie Kerper, Emilia Hartland, Zonggao Shi, Jenifer Prosperi, Sunil Badve, Sharon Stack, Simeon Mining, Laurie Littlepage. Molecular profiling of aggressive breast cancer in a unique patient population from Kenya. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 3851. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-3851