ReviewJournal of the National Cancer Institute2014
How many etiological subtypes of breast cancer: two, three, four, or more?
Review in Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 144 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
144 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The gut microbiota-obesity axis in the pathogenesis and prognosis of breast cancer.Annals of medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Genome-wide association study identifies 32 novel breast cancer susceptibility loci from overall and subtype-specific analyses.Nature genetics · 2020Pooled it
- An integrated meta-analysis approach to identifying medications with potential to alter breast cancer risk through connectivity mapping.BMC bioinformatics · 2017Pooled it
- BMI, reproductive factors, and breast cancer molecular subtypes: A case-control study and meta-analysis.Journal of epidemiology · 2017Pooled it
- High-throughput proteomics of breast cancer interstitial fluid: identification of tumor subtype-specific serologically relevant biomarkers.Molecular oncology · 2021Trial
- Postpartum breast cancer: evidence for a distinct phenotype.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2026Article
- Endocrine therapy resistance of breast cancer: Important role of G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) and new therapeutic strategies.Genes & diseases · 2026Review
- Article
- Estimated health outcomes of breast cancer screening in the national breast and cervical cancer early detection program by race/ethnicity.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2025Article
- Article
- Gut Microbiome and Estrogen.Journal of menopausal medicine · 2025Review
- Unraveling the role of stromal disruption in aggressive breast cancer etiology and outcomes.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2025Article
- Transcriptomic Profiling of Paired Primary Tumors and CNS Metastases in Breast Cancer Reveals Immune Modulation Signatures.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Metal-phenolic-network-coated gold nanoclusters for enhanced photothermal/chemodynamic/immunogenic cancer therapy.Bioactive materials · 2025Article
- Review
- ZNF32 histidine 179 and 183 single-site and double-site mutations promote nuclear speckle formation but differentially regulate the proliferation of breast cancer cells.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2025Article
- The burden and long-term trends of breast cancer by different menopausal status in China.Journal of the National Cancer Center · 2024Article
- Gut and oral microbial compositional differences in women with breast cancer, women with ductal carcinomamSystems · 2024Article
- Early detection of breast cancer through the diagnosis of Nipple Aspirate Fluid (NAF).Clinical proteomics · 2024Review
- SBFI26 induces triple-negative breast cancer cells ferroptosis via lipid peroxidation.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2024Article
84 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease, divisible into a variable number of clinical subtypes. A fundamental question is how many etiological classes underlie the clinical spectrum of breast cancer? An etiological subtype reflects a grouping with a common set of causes, whereas a clinical subtype represents a grouping with similar prognosis and/or prediction. Herein, we review the evidence for breast cancer etiological heterogeneity. We then evaluate the etiological evidence with mRNA profiling data. A bimodal age distribution at diagnosis with peak frequencies near ages 50 and 70 years is a fundamental characteristic of breast cancer for important tumor features, clinical characteristics, risk factor profiles, and molecular subtypes. The bimodal peak frequencies at diagnosis divide breast cancer overall into a "mixture" of two main components in varying proportions in different cancer populations. The first breast cancer tends to arise early in life with modal age-at-diagnosis near 50 years and generally behaves aggressively. The second breast cancer occurs later in life with modal age near 70 years and usually portends a more indolent clinical course. These epidemiological and molecular data are consistent with a two-component mixture model and compatible with a hierarchal view of breast cancers arising from two main cell types of origin. Notwithstanding the potential added value of more detailed categorizations for personalized breast cancer treatment, we suggest that the development of better criteria to identify the two proposed etiologic classes would advance breast cancer research and prevention.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.