Multi-omics landscape of early onset breast cancers

Approximately 5-7% of breast cancer cases are diagnosed in women under age 40 and this percentage is on the rise every year. Young breast cancer (YBC) patients are often diagnosed at an advanced stage and face more aggressive forms of the disease compared to older women. In fact, tumors tend to be less differentiated, have higher Ki-67 expression and are more of the estrogen receptor negative and HER2+ subtypes compared to women >40. Mutations in BRCA genes are also more common in these early onset tumors.  

Despite these known differences, tumors from YBC women remain poorly studied.  There is a great need for more research to improve the diagnosis, prognosis and treatments offered to these patients. Molecular and genomic analysis play a pivotal role in understanding breast cancer in young women. Our team proposes to leverage our large cohort of tumors from women <40 to perform whole genome sequencing, RNAseq, epigenomic and proteomic analysis to compare with tumors from older women (age>40).  We will perform the integration of muti-omic and clinical data to identify prognostic and predictive signatures specific to young breast cancers.  This comprehensive molecular picture will be complemented by the analysis of the tumor microenvironment using spatial digital profiling which will allow us to determine how the different microenvironment components interact to influence treatment response in young patients.  

The ultimate goal of this project is to better understand the mechanisms behind the aggressive nature of YBC tumors to enable the development of more precise prognostic tools, pave the way to personalized treatments and improve the overall outcomes for YBC patients.