issn 1652-4063 isbn 978-91-7668-941-7

Örebro Studies in Medicine 90örebro 2013

Doctoral Dissertation

Biological signature of HER2-positive breast cancer

Breezy Malakkaran LindqvistMedical Science with focus on Biomedicine

2013

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Biological signature of H

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2-positive breast cancer

ÖREBROSTUDIES INMEDICINE

90

Breezy Malakkaran Lindqvist is from Kera-la, the Southern state of India. In 2005, she received her Master’s Degree in Medical Microbiology from Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. After two years of research at Christian Medical College, a Linnaeus-Palme International exchange programme grant brought her to Sweden in the autumn of 2007, where she pursued an International Master’s Degree in Methods in Medical Diagnostics at Örebro Univer-

sity. Breezy was introduced to the field of breast cancer during her Master’s project and continued her Doctoral studies in the same field. She received her Licentiate Degree in Medical Science with specialisation in Biomedicine in November 2011.

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women and HER2-positive breast cancer is a subtype that overexpresses human epider-mal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Though targeted therapy is current-ly available for HER2-positive breast cancer, studies in the past confirm heterogeneity of this subgroup which has implications in patient outcome. Also, the development of resistance to anti-HER2 agents poses a challenge in the management of this breast cancer subgroup with poor survival. This thesis is therefore focused on improving the understanding of the biological signature of HER2-positve breast cancer. The studies presented here identify changes at the genetic, epigenetic and protein levels in HER2-positive breast cancer, which add new information and improve our understanding of this subtype of breast cancer.

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ka

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ist Biological signature of H

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2-positive

breast cancer