Molecular Epidemiology of Breast Cancer in Korean Women

摘要

This project is testing the hypothesis that populations of women with significantly different demographic characteristics may not only have different incidences of breast cancers, but also different types of breast cancers. We are testing this hypothesis by examining gene expression profiles of breast cancers from two populations that differ apparently by only a single major variable: age. Specifically, we are measuring gene expression profiles by gene array technology and by immunohistochemistry in breast cancer tissues from young and elderly Korean women. Recently published studies have shown that this approach has great potential for classifying breast cancer at the molecular level. Korean breast cancers have been selected for this project because there is much less cultural and genetic diversity in the Korean population than in the North American population.