Measurement of genetic instability in breast cancer by confocal microscopy and 3D image analysis

Genetic instability (GI) is frequently associated with solid tumors including cancers of the breast. We hypothesize that the degree of GI, as evidenced by the cell-to-cell variations in the copy number of specific DNA loci, can be used as a marker for cancer prognosis. We present a computer-aided method for GI measurement in thick tissue sections based on confocal microscopy and 3D image analysis and visualization. The results, based on the analysis of breast tissue sections show considerable cell-to-cell variability in the copy number of the centromere of chromosome 1 and the 20q13 locus in invasive cancer but the normal 2 copies per cell in histologically normal tissue.