Heterogenous tumors increase risk of fatal breast cancer

Patients with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive disease have a long-term risk for fatal breast cancer, but he biological factors are unknown. To investigate whether high intratumor heterogeneity of ER is associated with this increased risk, users of the SciLifeLab Tissue Profiling unit studied the tumors of 1780 postmenopausal women and the patients’ survival rate. The results show that patients with high intratumor heterogeneity of ER had an increased long-term risk of fatal breast cancer, suggesting that this factor could be used as a prognosticator with potential to change clinical management. The study was published in JNCI.

Read the full paper in JNCI