Hope for Others: Research Results from the University of Pittsburgh Rapid Autopsy Program for Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer affects 1/8 of women throughout their lifetimes, with 90% of cancer deaths being caused by metastasis. However, metastasis poses unique challenges to research, as complex changes in the microenvironment in different metastatic sites and difficulty obtaining tissue for study hinder the ability to examine in depth the changes that occur during metastasis. Rapid autopsy programs thus fill a unique need in advancing metastasis research.

Mutual information for detecting multi-class biomarkers when integrating multiple bulk or single-cell transcriptomic studies.

Motivation: Biomarker detection plays a pivotal role in biomedical research. Integrating omics studies from multiple cohorts can enhance statistical power, accuracy, and robustness of the detection results. However, existing methods for horizontally combining omics studies are mostly designed for two-class scenarios (e.

Systemic and local chronic inflammation and hormone disposition promote a tumor-permissive environment for breast cancer in older women.

Unlabelled: Estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer is the most common subtype of breast cancer and is an age-related disease. The peak incidence of diagnosis occurs around age 70, even though these post-menopausal patients have low circulating levels of estradiol (E2). Despite the hormone sensitivity of age-related tumors, we have a limited understanding of the interplay between systemic and local hormones, chronic inflammation, and immune changes that contribute to the growth and development of these tumors.

Long-term outcomes by lobular vs ductal histology in 4 National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project adjuvant breast cancer trials.

We evaluated differences in long-term outcomes of invasive lobular carcinoma vs breast cancers of no special type treated with anthracycline-based adjuvant chemotherapy using 4 National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project randomized phase III trials (B-22, B-25, B-28, and B-30). Our cohort included 11 251 patients with no special type and 1231 with invasive lobular carcinoma. Patients with invasive lobular carcinoma were older, had larger and more frequently estrogen receptor-positive tumors, and more positive lymph nodes.