Research aim


The goals of the molecular pathology programme are to advance breast cancer diagnosis and treatment by applying high throughput pathology and molecular genetic methods to define:
  • Breast cancer taxonomy based on a combination of classic morphological and immunohistochemical characteristics and molecular genetic features of specific subgroups of breast cancer

  • Potential therapeutic targets

  • Prevention of progression

  • Novel treatments for invasive disease

Overview


Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, comprising a plethora of entities with distinct biology and clinical behaviour that are known to have different responses to chemotherapy. Although an accurate histological diagnosis is of paramount importance for patient management, it is clear that, in the era of tailored therapy, additional markers with higher predictive and prognostic impact are needed.

The combination of traditional pathology methods, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridisation, comparative genomic hybridization and expression profiling, has helped us to address several contentious issues of breast cancer taxonomy and clarify the role of putative breast cancer precursor lesions.

Our research


In collaboration with other laboratories at the Breakthrough Research Centre, the Royal Marsden Hospital and institutions in Europe and USA, we have been analysing special types of breast cancer in great depth and identifying molecular traits that in the near future, may be used to further refine breast cancer classification and the molecular pathways by which breast cancer develops.

Our projects address the molecular pathology of lobular carcinoma and its recently described pleomorphic variant, basal-like carcinomas, metaplastic breast carcinomas and secretory carcinomas of the breast. In all these projects, a combination of thorough histological analysis, immunohistochemistry for prognostic and predictive markers and molecular genetics have allowed us to tease out interesting biological aspects and most importantly, refine the definition of these entities. With the identification of therapeutic targets and more accurate molecular definitions, clinical trials using tailored therapies may prove more successful.