Transcriptional characteristics of familial non-BRCA1/BRCA2 breast tumors

To better understand the alterations present in the group of the so-called BRCAX tumors, we have used a cDNA microarray containing genes related to tumorigenesis and analyzed a series of 49 tumors consisting of 13 BRCA1, 14 BRCAX and 22 sporadic. We have confirmed that the BRCAX tumors are heterogeneous and can be divided in at least two main subgroups, so-called A and B, transcriptionally distinguishable and with different altered pathways within each of the groups. We have found that BRCAX-A and B subgroups, can be classified as Luminal A and Luminal B, respectively, taking into account the intrinsic phenotypes defined for the sporadic breast tumors. We have found that, at the somatic level, the BRCAX-B tumors are identical to their sporadic Luminal B counterparts, whereas BRCAX-A, despite having a Luminal A phenotype, shows additional genomic alterations. We have found 21 deregulated genes in the BRCAX-A group that we have called "the BRCAX susceptibility pathway" and suggested it as a candidate to search for new genes involved in the inherited susceptibility underlying the disease in this group.