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Cancer Diagnosis Program (CDP)
CDP Tissue Microarrays

CDP Breast Cancer Prognostic Tissue Microarray (TMA)

The NCI Cancer Diagnosis Program (CDP) has developed a breast cancer prognostic tissue microarray that is designed to examine potential prognostic markers in non-metastatic breast cancer. Separate TMAs were constructed for each of the three non-metastatic TNM stages, I-III (as defined by AJCC Manual for Staging of Cancer, 5th edition). All of the invasive cases are primary breast cancers with a principal histology of ductal or lobular cancer. The CDP breast cancer prognostic TMA was designed by a National Cancer Institute biostatistician to ensure high statistical power.

The CDP assembled a collection of 590 Stage I, 398 Stage II, and 181 Stage III breast tissue specimens. Each case set is arrayed in quadruplicate to address possible tissue heterogeneity: four cores are taken from each breast tissue specimen, with one core per specimen appearing in each of the four replicate tissue microarray blocks.

The cases are divided into 5 non-overlapping Stage I case sets, 4 Stage II case sets, and 2 Stage III case sets. Each TMA block consists of between 118-146 cores taken from paraffin-embedded specimens, including 98-126 breast cancer and normal breast specimens plus 20 control cores. Normal breast tissue cores are 1.0 mm in diameter, and the remaining tissue microarray cores are 0.6 mm in diameter. For additional details about the design of the CDP breast cancer prognostic TMA, see Case Sets 9-19.

It is recommended by the NCI Cancer Diagnosis Program that each assay should be performed using a complete array set, which represents the minimum number of cores recommended for an experiment. A complete array set for the Stage I Prognostic TMA includes replicate sections from all five case sets (a 10-section set). A complete array set for the Stage II Prognostic TMA includes replicate sections from all four case sets (an 8-section set); and a complete array set for the Stage III Prognostic TMA includes replicate sections from all two case sets (a 4-section set).

Data that are provided for each case include age at diagnosis, year of diagnosis, tumor size, laterality, TNM stage, number of nodes positive, number of nodes examined, type of surgery, type of therapy, histologic type, tumor grade, overall survival, and recurrence free survival. (Data Manual)

Statistical Guidance[DOC] reference.

To apply for breast TMAs from the Cancer Diagnosis Program, please complete an application.

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