Microsatellite markers in breast cancer studies.

Microsatellites are tandem repeats of simple polymorphic sequences randomly distributed in non-coding regions of DNA. They can be used in cancer genetics and indirect cancer diagnosis and can help unraveling the genetic basis of tumor formation and progression of cancer. Breast cancer is a complex disease in which numerous genetic alterations occur. The knowledge of specific genetic changes and their biological consequences is critical to an understanding of breast cancer tumorigenesis, screening and treatment of patients. Microsatellites can undergo two events during tumor progression. Loss of heterozygosity indicates absence of one allele in a given locus, which is associated with the loss of a corresponding genes. Microsatellite instability reflects replication errors induced by defective function of mismatch repair genes and is demonstrated with the appearance of novel, noninherited alleles in tumor cells and represents a specific pathway of tumor development. Both events serve as prognostic markers, which can be correlated with clinicopathological features and can help exploring breast cancer formation.