SNP array technology: an array of hope in breast cancer research

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women worldwide. The incidence of breast cancer in Malaysia is lower compared to international statistics, with peak occurrence in the age group between 50 to 59 years of age and mortality rates of 18.6%. Despite current diagnostic and prognostic methods, the outcome for individual subjects remain poor. This is in part due to breast cancers' wide genetic heterogeneity. Various platforms for genetics studies are now employed to determine the identity of these genetic abnormalities, including microarray methods like high density single-nucleotide-polymorphism (SNP) oligonucleotide arrays which combine the power of chromosomal comparative genomic hybridization (cCGH) and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in the offering of higher-resolution mappings. These platforms and their applications in highlighting the genomic alteration frameworks manifested in breast carcinoma will be discussed.