Examining Differential Gene Expression Between Luminal A and Basal-like Breast Cancer
Medha Chellapilla
21/07/2026
Breast cancer is a leading contributor to the global cancer burden as the most common form of cancer in women (Lukasiewicz et al., 2021). Scientists often examine breast cancer on a genetic level and use molecular subtypes to differentiate between symptoms and aggression levels. Overarching subtypes include luminal A, luminal B, HER2+, and triple-negative/basal-like breast cancers. Luminal A patients often have positive prognoses whereas basal-like cancers lead to largely negative patient outcomes, respectively. In order to examine what genes and alleles may cause the difference in symptoms and cancer severity between the two subtypes, data analyses were conducted to contrast and measure gene activity in each of the subtypes. Using The Cancer Genome Atlas’s breast cancer database, key differentially expressed genes have been identified between the aggressive basal-like subtype and the more treatable luminal A subtype. This study has identified the top 3 differentially expressed genes for basal-like subtypes and the top 3 differentially expressed genes for luminal A through bioinformatics analysis using R. Literature reviews were conducted regarding FOXA1, FSIP1, NAT1, ROPN1, ROPN1B, and HORMAD1. Through examining these genes and biological pathways they impact, this paper highlights that genes highly expressed in luminal A subtypes may affect patient prognosis positively whilst genes with a significant presence in basal-like samples often encourage cancerous spread and tumor advancement.