Bay Biosciences provides high quality, clinical grade fresh frozen (-80°) clinical grade Breast cancer human tumor tissue samples with matched serum (sera), plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) biofluid samples from 100 unique ER+ Breast cancer patients treated with Tamoxifen who had a relapse.

Detailed clinical data, including patient’s age, sex, race, corresponding smoking and alcohol use, and Estrogen Receptor (ER) information associated with tumor tissue samples with matched serum (sera), plasma, and PBMC biofluid samples is provided to a valued pharmaceutical customer for research, development, and discovery.

Breast Cancer Overview

Cancer begins when healthy cells in the breast change and grow out of control, forming a mass or sheet of cells called a tumor. Specifically, a tumor can be cancerous or benign. In particular, a cancerous tumor is malignant, which means it can grow and spread to other parts of the body.

On the other hand, a benign tumor means that the tumor can grow but will not spread to other parts of the body. Furthermore, breast cancer spreads when the cancer grows into adjacent organs or other parts of the body or when breast cancer cells move to other parts of the body through the blood vessels and/or lymph vessels.

To clarify, non-invasive breast cancer (stage 0) is a cancer that is just starting. Moreover, early-stage and locally advanced invasive breast cancer includes stages I, II, and III. Thus, the breast-cancer-stages describe how much the cancer has grown and whether it has spread and where.

Although breast cancer most commonly spreads to nearby lymph nodes, it can also spread further through the body to areas such as the bones, lungs, liver, and brain.

Types of Breast Cancer  

Breast cancer can be invasive or non-invasive. Usually, invasive breast cancer spreads into surrounding tissues and/or distant organs. Non-invasive breast cancer does not go beyond the milk ducts or lobules in the breast. Most breast cancers starts in the ducts or lobes and are classified as ductal carcinoma or lobular carcinoma:

  • Firstly, Ductal carcinoma: These cancers are started in the cells lining the milk ducts and make up the majority of breast cancers. 
    • In addition, Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS): This type of cancer is non-invasive and is located only in the duct and has not spread outside the duct. 
    • Moreover, Invasive or infiltrating ductal carcinoma: This type of cancer spreads outside of the duct.
  • Finally, Invasive lobular carcinoma: This type of cancer starts in the lobules and has spread outside of the lobules.

Less common types of breast cancer include:

  • Firstly, medullary breast carcinoma
  • Secondly, medullary (Colloid) breast cancer
  • Thirdly, tubular breast cancer
  • Moreover, metaplastic breast cancer 
  • In addition, papillary carcinoma of the breast
  • Furthermore, inflammatory breast cancer is an aggressive type of cancer that accounts for about 1% to 5% of all breast cancers.
  • Finally, Paget’s disease of the breast is a type of breast cancer that begins in the ducts of the nipple. Although it is usually non-invasive, it can also be an invasive cancer.

Subtypes of Breast Cancer 

The determination of three main subtypes of breast cancer relies on specific tests conducted on a sample of the tumor. Consequently, these tests enable your doctor to gain insights into your cancer and, in turn, to recommend the most effective treatment plan.

In fact, testing the tumor sample can reveal whether the cancer is:

Hormone Receptor Positive

  • Hormone Receptor Positive: Specifically, breast cancers that express estrogen receptors (ER) and/or progesterone receptors (PR) are termed hormone receptor positive. Notably, these receptors are proteins located in cells. Therefore, tumors exhibiting estrogen receptors are classified as ER positive.Conversely, tumors exhibiting progesterone receptors are classified as PR positive. Only one of these receptors needs to be positive for the cancer to be classified as hormone receptor positive. As a result, this category of cancer may depend on the hormone estrogen and/or progesterone for growth.Moreover, hormone receptor-positive cancers can manifest at any age, but they are more frequently observed in women who have undergone menopause. In fact, about two-thirds of breast cancers have estrogen and/or progesterone receptors. Meanwhile, cancer without these receptors is classified as hormone receptor negative.

Her2 Positive

  • HER2 Positive: About 20% of breast cancers are dependent on the gene known as human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) for growth. Consequently, these cancers are classified as HER2 positive and consequently possess multiple copies of the HER2 gene. Furthermore, the HER2 gene produces the HER2 protein, which is present on cancer cells and essential for tumor cell growth. Notably, breast cancers that are HER2 positive tend to grow more rapidly. In addition, they may also be classified as either hormone receptor positive or hormone receptor negative. 

Triple Negative

  • Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC): A tumor is called triple negative if it does not express ER, PR, and HER2. Furthermore, about 15% of invasive breast cancers are classified as triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). In addition, among younger women, particularly younger Black and Hispanic women, triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) appears to be more common. Moreover, women with a mutation in the BRCA1 gene also have a higher prevalence of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

Signs and Symptoms of Breast Cancer

When first diagnosed with breast cancer, the majority of women patients do not exhibit any body changes (signs) or symptoms.

In fact, the common signs and symptoms reported by breast cancer patients are as follows:

  • Firstly, a lump is felt like a hard knot or a thickening in the breast or under the arm. 
  • Moreover, changes in the size or shape of the breast may occur. 
  • Furthermore, nipple discharge that occurs suddenly, is bloody, or occurs in only one of the breasts may be noticed.
  • In addition, physical changes, such as a nipple turning inward or a sore located around the nipple area, can be observed.
  • Likewise, skin irritation or changes, such as puckering, dimpling, scaling, or new creases on the breast, may also be present.
  • Furthermore, a warm, red, swollen breast may present with or without a rash and may exhibit dimpling that resembles the skin of an orange, known as Peau d’Orange.

Causes of of Breast Cancer

Abnormal growth begins in some breast cells, leading to breast cancer. Specifically, these cells divide more rapidly than healthy cells and continue to accumulate, thereby forming a lump or mass. Furthermore, the cells may spread (metastasize) through the breast to the lymph nodes or other parts of the body.

Most often, breast cancer begins with cells in the milk-producing ducts (invasive ductal carcinoma). Additionally, it may also begin in the glandular tissue called lobules (invasive lobular carcinoma) or in other cells or tissue within the breast.

Moreover, hormonal, lifestyle, and environmental factors that may increase the risk of developing breast cancer have been identified by researchers. However, the reasons why some patients without risk factors develop cancer while others with risk factors do not are unclear.

Consequently, it is likely that a complex interaction between genetic makeup and the environment causes breast cancer.

Inherited Breast Cancer

Researchers estimate that, in fact, about 5 to 10 percent of breast cancers are linked to gene mutations passed through generations of families.

Specifically, the most well-known are breast cancer gene 1 (BRCA1) and breast cancer gene 2 (BRCA2), both of which significantly increase the risk of both breast and ovarian cancer. 

Risk factors of of Breast Cancer

Anything that makes it more likely for someone to get breast cancer is considered a breast cancer risk factor. However, having one or even several breast cancer risk factors does not necessarily mean that breast cancer will be developed. In fact, many women who develop breast cancer have no known risk factors other than being women.

Following are the factors associated with an increased risk of breast cancer:

  • First being female
  • Additionally, increasing age
  • Moreover, a personal history of breast conditions
  • Furthermore, a family history of breast cancer
  • Inherited genes that increase cancer
  • Radiation exposure
  • Obesity
  • Starting your period at a younger age
  • Beginning menopause at an older age
  • Having your first child at an older age
  • Having never been pregnant
  • Postmenopausal hormone therapy
  • Drinking alcohol

Treatment

Breast Cancer Treatment Stage-1-3

Surgery is usually the first step for patients with stage 1 breast cancer; moreover, it is typically followed by radiation therapy. In contrast, for those with stage 2 or 3 cancer, some drug therapies are prescribed before surgery.

Specifically, chemotherapy or targeted therapy is administered for certain types of stage 1 cancer, such as TNBC or HER-2 positive breast cancer.

Breast Cancer Treatment Stage-4

Stage 4 breast cancer is sometimes referred to by doctors as metastatic cancer. This means that the cancer has spread beyond the breast and lymph nodes, with secondary tumors growing in other areas of the body. Typically, these areas usually include the bones, liver, lungs, and other organs that receive and process a lot of blood.

At this stage, the main therapy options are drugs. Nevertheless, tumors may be removed by a surgeon to prevent complications from developing as quickly. In general, surgery is often recommended only in a palliative setting.

Biospecimens

biospecimens

Bay Biosciences is a global leader in providing researchers with high quality, clinical grade, fully characterized human tissue samples, bio-specimens, and human bio-fluid collections.

Human biospecimens are available including cancer (tumor) tissue, cancer serum, cancer plasma, cancer peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). and human tissue samples from most other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Bay Biosciences maintains and manages its own biorepository, the human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and from normal healthy donors for controls, available in all formats and types.

In fact, our biobank procures and stores fully consented, de-identified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples, human biofluids such as serum samples, plasma samples from various diseases and matched controls.

Also, all our human tissue collections, human biospecimens and human biofluids are provided with detailed, samples associated patient’s clinical data.

In fact, this critical patient’s clinical data includes information relating to their past and current disease, treatment history, lifestyle choices, biomarkers, and genetic information.

Additionally, researchers find the patient’s data associated with the human biospecimens extremely valuable and use it to help identify new effective treatments (drug discovery & development) in oncology, as well as in other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and human biological samples, including fresh frozen human biospecimens cryogenically preserved at – 80°C.

For example fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE), tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood-derived products such as human serum, human plasma and human PBMCs.

Bay Biosciences is a global leader in collecting and providing human tissue samples according to the specified requirements and customized, tailor-made collection protocols.

Please contact us anytime to discuss your special research projects and customized human tissue sample requirements.

Types of Biospecimens

Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) and human biofluids from diseased and normal healthy donors which includes:

Moreover, we can also procure most human biospecimens and human biofluids, special collections and requests for human samples that are difficult to find. All our human tissue samples and human biofluids are procured through IRB-approved clinical protocols and procedures.

In addition to the standard processing protocols, Bay Biosciences can also provide human biofluids such as  human plasma, human serum, and human PBMCs bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols; you buy donor-specific collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquots from us.

Bay Biosciences also provides human biospecimens from normal healthy donors; volunteers, for controls and clinical research, Contact us Now.