Breast Cancer Cohort Profiling

Lymph node and tumor formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) sections as well as blood plasma from breast cancer patients were obtained from UT Southwestern tissue management shared resources. Three cohorts of patient samples were included in this study: stage IV, LN⁺, and LN⁻ patients. The inclusion criteria for cohort selection were patients with stage IV disease, patients with lymph node metastases of at least 2 mm or larger, and patients with microscopically negative lymph node metastasis, respectively. Case details including overall survival, time of diagnosis, cancer subtype, etc., were also obtained for each patient.
All patient samples and patient information were obtained with voluntary consent from UT Southwestern Tissue Management Shared Resources under an Institutional Review Board protocol approved by the UT Southwestern Institutional Review Board.