Microarray analysis reveals a major direct role of DNA copy number alteration in the transcriptional program of human breast tumors

Genomic DNA copy number alterations are key genetic events in the development and progression of human cancers. Here we report a genome-wide microarray comparative genomic hybridization (array CGH) analysis of DNA copy number variation in a series of primary human breast tumors. We have profiled DNA copy number alteration across 6,691 mapped human genes, in 44 predominantly advanced, primary breast tumors and 10 breast cancer cell lines. While the overall patterns of DNA amplification and deletion corroborate previous cytogenetic studies, the high-resolution (gene-by-gene) mapping of amplicon boundaries and the quantitative analysis of amplicon shape provide significant improvement in the localization of…

• HH
  Howard Hughes Medical Institute
• K
  Kreftforeningen
• NF
  Norges Forskningsråd
• NI
  National Institutes of Health