Evaluation of gene expression signatures induced by stromal factors as a predictor of survival in breast cancer.

10607 Background: Recent findings present the tumor microenvironment as an innovative therapeutic target in contrast to traditional tumor cell directed therapy. Fibroblasts have been identified to play an important role in breast cancer progression. We analyzed the effect of normal mammary fibroblasts on gene expression in human breast epithelial cells in a 3D coculture and it's correlation to clinical data. Methods: Nonmalignant HMT3522 S1 human breast epithelial cells were cultured in 3D collagen gels as mono- or coculture with normal human mammary fibroblasts. Gene expression profiles of S1 cells from co- and monoculture were analyzed using the Affymetrix HG-U133 Plus 2.0 GeneChip. Signal values were calculated by means of RMA using R Bioconductor 2.4, then log2 transformed. Transcripts with a log ratio ≥ ± 1.5 were defined as differentially expressed. Using published microarray profiles of 295 human breast tumors with associated clinical data t- tests, hierarchical cluster and Kaplan-Meier analysis we...