A new methodological approach, developed by researchers from SciLifeLab, could help improve breast cancer diagnostics and provide insight in the hunt for new therapeutic targets. The study was published in EBioMedicine.

Today, breast cancer analysis relies on homogenized tissue samples, something that does not provide accurate information about signaling mechanisms or cellular interactions due to the complex heterogeneity of tumors.  

In a recent study, led by Mats Nilsson (SciLifeLab/Stockholm University), researchers mapped ninety-one genes, including prognostic and predictive marker profiles, in different types of breast cancer tissue using a new analytical approach involving in situ sequencing (ISS).

The new approach makes it possible to create more accurate gene expression profiles that could be assembled into a molecular-morphological map, called OncoMap, for each of the different tumor tissues.

The OncoMaps give insight into tumor progression and can help refine tumor diagnosis as well as identifying new therapeutic targets.