P53 mutations in benign breast tissue

Purpose: Patients with benign breast biopsies that exit atypical epithelial proliferation or fibroadenoma may be at increased risk for invasive breast cancer. We hypothesized that molecular markers might also be use-ful to evaluate the malignant potential of nonneoplastic breast tissue. Patients and Methods: Study subjects belonged to a cohort of 6,805 women who underwent biopsy for non-malignant breast disease at the Mayo Clinic and Roches-ter-affiliated hospitals between 1967 and 1981. As part of a nested case-control study that compared subjects who developed invasive breast cancer with those who did not, we analyzed a sample of 60 benign breast biops-ies for the following markers: HER-2/neu and p53 over-expression by immunohistochemistry, HER-2/neu an