Understanding tamoxifen resistance of breast cancer based on integrative bioinformatics approaches

Abstract

Global gene expression profiles on tumors are not only useful in developing prognosis signatures but also rich resource for the elucidation of underlying mechanisms related to poor clinical outcome and drug resistance. In this chapter we present a panel of bioinformatics strategies to derive biological insights based on gene expression profiles on estrogen receptor positive breast tumors that were collected prior to adjuvant tamoxifen treatment. The analyses reveal that the tamoxifen resistant tumors are highly proliferative and display a distinctive expression profile for genes related to inflammation and angiogenesis compared to tamoxifen sensitive tumors. The bioinformatics analysis also identifies a set of small molecules that may reverse the tamoxifen resistance in breast tumor.