Confounding Effects in “A Six-Gene Signature Predicting Breast Cancer Lung Metastasis”
Open Access
- 14 September 2009
- journal article
- Published by American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Cancer Research
- Vol. 69 (18), 7480-7485
- https://doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.can-08-3350
Abstract
The majority of breast cancer deaths result from metastases rather than from direct effects of the primary tumor itself. Recently, Landemaine and colleagues described a six-gene signature purported to predict lung metastasis risk. They analyzed gene expression in 23 metastases from breast cancer patients (5 lung, 18 non-lung) identifying a 21-gene signature. Expression of 16 of these was analyzed in primary breast tumors from 72 patients with known outcome, and six were selected that were predictive of lung metastases: DSC2, TFCP2L1, UGT8, ITGB8, ANP32E, and FERMT1. Despite the value of such a signature, our analysis indicates that this analysis ignored potentially important confounding factors and that their signature is instead a surrogate for molecular subtype. [Cancer Res 2009;69(18):7480–5]Keywords
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