Interphase cytogenetic analysis of erbB2 and topollα co‐amplification in invasive breast cancer and polysomy of chromosome 17 in ductal carcinoma in situ

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Abstract
Breast cancer is a genetically complex disease. Fluorescence in situ hybridisation can be used to analyse the genetics of breast‐cancer progression by interphase cytogenetics. We have analysed the histological distribution of erbB2 and topollα co‐amplification in paraffin sections of invasive breast cancer and show that the co‐amplified loci share the same histological distribution in the tumour and have a similar nuclear distribution within individual nuclei. Regions of the tumours without amplification are easily recognized and tumours with erbB2 and topollα co‐amplification can be distinguished from those with erbB2 amplification alone. In addition, FISH was used to show polysomy of chromosome 17 in non‐invasive ductal carcinoma in situ of the breast and erbB2 amplification in both the invasive and non‐invasive components of a breast cancer biopsy. This report of an interphase cytogenetic analysis of non‐invasive breast carcinoma in situ demonstrates the usefulness of FISH for the genetic study of breast cancer progression.