Early Diagnosis of Breast Cancer using Molecular, Biochemical and Pathological Markers

Problem statement: Laboratory diagnosis of breast cancer in most of the hospitals has traditionally been performed using cell culture and the direct hormone receptor assay, which are money and time consuming. Approach: This study was performed in order to direct the attention toward increasing the efficiency of early diagnosis in clinical laboratories at the western region of KSA and Egypt using recent PCR-dependent protocols i.e., Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD’s) and Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). Expression of HER4 oncogene using RT-PCR and immunohistochemical (IHC) staining have been assessed as early diagnostic for breast cancer. RT-PCR has detected HER4 expression in 52% of Invasive Duct breast Cancer (IDC) and this expression was significantly correlated with HER4 gene expression by IHC. Also we have selected sixteen 10-mer RAPD primers that have shown high percentage of identity to exons of different human oncogenes, such as V-myc, HER2, HER4, BRCA1 and BRCA2. Results: Only 13 out of the selected RAPD primers have revealed 19 distinguishable polymorphic markers between patient and normal females. Moreover, analysis of total protein profile identified extra markers and some differences at the level of Low Molecular Weight (LMW) protein among the two classes of females. Conclusion: These data will provide molecular, biochemical and pathological markers that can be used in KSA and Egypt clinical laboratories as additional efficient tools for early diagnosis of breast cancer.