Breast Cancer Among Asian Women

Gene expression heatmap showing gene expression levels of 13 immune metagenes in the three luminal immune subtypes and in non-luminal enriched tumors.

Hong Kong Breast Cancer Genomics Study

The study aims to characterize the genomic and molecular profiles of breast cancer tumors and adjacent normal tissue collected from Chinese breast cancer patients in Hong Kong.

Breast cancer is known to vary significantly by race/ethnicity. While estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer is a signature disease in Western populations, breast cancer among Asians has been associated with an early age-onset, a higher proportion of HER2+ tumors, and a distinct shape of age-specific incidence rate patterns. In addition, Asian women also have a higher proportion of dense breast tissue.

DCEG investigators are conducting studies in several Asian populations, including Hong Kong, mainland China, and Malaysia. In these studies, breast tissues (frozen and/or formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues) and histologic images as well as information on risk factors, clinical data, breast density, blood or saliva for germline DNA, are being collected.

The main goals are to identify distinct molecular alterations in tumors and adjacent normal tissues among Asian women and to examine the associations of these molecular changes with risk factors (genetic and environmental), breast tissue composition and density, and breast cancer subtypes.

For more information, contact Rose Yang.