Genomic and Proteomic Integrated Approach to Study Breast Cancer: Differences in Patients negative and Positive to 18F-FDG PET Screening

Breast cancer rather presents distinct subtypes associated with different clinical outcomes. Understanding this heterogeneity is a key factor for the development of targeted preventative and therapeutic interventions (Rakha et al 2008). 18Ffluoro- 2-deoxy-D-glucose Positron Emission Tomography (18F-FDG PET) has been evaluated in breast cancer to characterize primary tumors, lymph node staging and patients follow-up after surgery, chemotherapy and/or external radiotherapy (Lind et al 2004). PET is a molecular imaging technique sensitive to functional or metabolic changes in tissues. Since functional changes precede anatomical changes, FDG PET has the capability to detect viable tumor tissue …