NOTE: The following information describes the tissue microarrays that were distributed by the CBCTR from 2002 to 2006. No new requests will be filled from these TMAs. A limited number of sections may still be available to investigators who previously received sections from these blocks and can provide a compelling justification.

The CBCTR has designed a breast cancer Tissue microarray (TMA) that can be used to investigate differences in prevalence of potential markers in three stages of invasive breast cancer: node-negative, node-positive and metastatic disease. All of the invasive cases are primary breast cancers with a principal histology of ductal cancer accessioned through the CBCTR. The arrays were designed by National Cancer Institute statisticians to provide high statistical power for studies of stage specific markers of breast cancer.

Each TMA block consists of 288 0.6 mm cores taken from paraffin-embedded specimens that represent 252 breast cancer and normal breast specimens plus 36 controls. Each array is created in quadruplicate to address possible tissue heterogeneity: four cores are taken from each specimen block, with one core per specimen appearing in each of the four replicate array blocks. The information provided for each case on the array will be: tumor size, TNM stage, number of nodes positive, grade, age at diagnosis and race. For additional details about the design of the CBCTR 1st Generation Progression TMA, see Case Sets 1-2 Design.

The 252 normal breast and breast cancer cores appearing on each TMA block include:

1. NODE-NEGATIVE BREAST CANCER: 64 cores.
2. NODE-POSITIVE BREAST CANCER: 64 cores.
3. METASTATIC BREAST CANCER: 64 cores.
4. DUCTAL CARCINOMA IN SITU (DCIS): 20 cores (10 from individuals without an invasive disease component and 10 from individuals with invasive disease represented elsewhere on the TMA).
5. NORMAL BREAST TISSUE: 40 cores (20 from individuals without breast cancer and 20 from individuals with breast cancer represented elsewhere on the TMA).

The 36 control cores appearing on each TMA block include:

1. NORMAL NON-BREAST TISSUE: 16 cores (4 cores from each of the following tissue types: kidney, endometrium, prostate and appendix).
2. CELL LINES: 20 cores (5 cores from each of the following cell lines: HT-29, PC-3, MCF-7 and T-47D). These cell lines have previously been characterized with regard to expression of a variety of markers of interest in breast cancer.

For information about tissue microarrays, please consult the National Human Genome Research Institute Tissue Microarray Project.

To apply for tissue microarrays from the Resource, you must complete a Letter of Intent.