As research resulting from using Komen Tissue Bank samples is completed and published, we will continue to update this reference page. If you are aware of research that should be included here, please contact the chief operating officer.
Note: Citations have been simplified to facilitate ease of finding the desired publication.
KTB tissue samples are vital to important breast cancer research
Virtual Tissue Bank: KTB data available for download
Be sure to check our free online database — you’ll find data generated by researchers using KTB samples, mammograms and medical history of the donors, images, and H&Es.
Researcher Spotlights: Luke McCaffrey, PhD
Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre, McGill University
Dr. McCaffrey and his team focus on epithelial cells — specifically, growing them in the lab in a specialized three-dimensional environment that allows them to form complex structures that mimics the normal breast structure. They then introduce cancer-causing alterations to the cells and observe how normal cells become cancer cells.
As a researcher that has used the KTB samples I felt it important to donate and contribute to the great resource. My mother also was diagnosed with breast cancer so it's important to help fight for the cause to prevent breast cancer.
Anonymous — Tissue Donor
93. Stromal heterogeneity may explain increased incidence of metaplastic breast cancer in women of African descent.
Kumar B, Khatpe AS, et al. Nature communications 2023, Sep;14(1)
92. Host, reproductive, and lifestyle factors in relation to quantitative histologic metrics of the normal breast.
Abubakar M, Klein A, et al. Breast cancer research : BCR 2023, Aug;25(1)
91. Exploring breast tissue microbial composition and the association with breast cancer risk factors.
German R, Marino N, et al. Breast cancer research : BCR 2023, Jul;25(1)
90. Testing the Effect of Culturally Targeted, Normative Messaging on Black Women’s Intentions to Participate in a Breast Cancer Clinical Trial
Ridley-Merriweather KE, , et al. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing 2023, Jul;
89. Outdoor air pollution and histologic composition of normal breast tissue.
Ish JL, Abubakar M, et al. Environment international 2023, Jun;176
88. TONSL Is an Immortalizing Oncogene and a Therapeutic Target in Breast Cancer.
Khatpe AS, Dirks R, et al. Cancer research 2023, Apr;83(8)
87. Immune cells are increased in normal breast tissues of BRCA1/2 mutation carriers.
Ogony J, Hoskin TL, et al. Breast cancer research and treatment 2023, Jan;197(2)
86. Association of Genetic Ancestry With Terminal Duct Lobular Unit Involution Among Healthy Women.
Sung H, Koka H, et al. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2022, Oct;114(10)
85. Mapping hormone-regulated cell-cell interaction networks in the human breast at single-cell resolution.
Murrow LM, Weber RJ, et al. Cell systems 2022, Aug;13(8)
84. Towards defining morphologic parameters of normal parous and nulliparous breast tissues by artificial intelligence.
Ogony J, de Bel T, et al. Breast cancer research : BCR 2022, Jul;24(1)
83. Composition and Functional Potential of the Human Mammary Microbiota Prior to and Following Breast Tumor Diagnosis.
Hoskinson C, Zheng K, et al. mSystems 2022, Jun;7(3)
82. A human breast atlas integrating single-cell proteomics and transcriptomics.
Gray GK, Li CM, et al. Developmental cell 2022, Jun;57(11)
81. A Novel Qualitative Approach for Identifying Effective Communication for Recruitment of Minority Women to a Breast Cancer Prevention Study
Ridley-Merriweather KE, Head KJ, et al. Contemporary clinical trials communications 2022, Jun;27
80. The impact of reproductive factors on DNA methylation-based telomere length in healthy breast tissue.
Sehl ME, Henry JE, et al. NPJ breast cancer 2022, Apr;8(1)
79. Acquisition, processing, and single-cell analysis of normal human breast tissues from a biobank.
Bhat-Nakshatri P, Marino N, et al. STAR protocols 2022, Mar;3(1)
78. FAM83A is a potential biomarker for breast cancer initiation.
Marino N, German R, et al. Biomarker research 2022, Feb;10(1)
77. Aberrant epigenetic and transcriptional events associated with breast cancer risk.
Marino N, German R, et al. Clinical epigenetics 2022, Feb;14(1)
76. Metabolic Links to Socioeconomic Stresses Uniquely Affecting Ancestry in Normal Breast Tissue at Risk for Breast Cancer.
Rujchanarong D, Scott D, et al. Frontiers in oncology 202212
75. Racial Differences in Cumulative Disadvantage Among Women and Its Relation to Health: Development and Preliminary Validation of the Cumulative Stress Inventory of Women's Experiences.
Latham-Mintus K, Weathers TD, et al. Health equity 20226(1)
74. Aged Breast Extracellular Matrix Drives Mammary Epithelial Cells to an Invasive and Cancer-Like Phenotype.
Bahcecioglu G, Yue X, et al. Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg 2021, Nov;8(22)
73. Breast Cancer Endocrine Therapy Promotes Weight Gain With Distinct Adipose Tissue Effects in Lean and Obese Female Mice.
Scalzo RL, Foright RM, et al. Endocrinology 2021, Nov;162(11)
72. Bidirectional Regulatory Cross-Talk between Cell Context and Genomic Aberrations Shapes Breast Tumorigenesis.
Kumar B, Bhat-Nakshatri P, et al. Molecular cancer research : MCR 2021, Nov;19(11)
71. Hormonally Regulated Myogenic miR-486 Influences Sex-specific Differences in Cancer-induced Skeletal Muscle Defects.
Wang R, Bhat-Nakshatri P, et al. Endocrinology 2021, Oct;162(10)
70. The Effects of Lifetime Estrogen Exposure on Breast Epigenetic Age.
Sehl ME, Henry JE, et al. Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention 2021, Jun;30(6)
69. A single-cell atlas of the healthy breast tissues reveals clinically relevant clusters of breast epithelial cells.
Bhat-Nakshatri P, Gao H, et al. Cell reports. Medicine 2021, Mar;2(3)
68. Inflammation markers on benign breast biopsy are associated with risk of invasive breast cancer in African American women.
Shaik AN, Kiavash K, et al. Breast cancer research and treatment 2021, Feb;185(3)
67. Mammary mechanobiology - investigating roles for mechanically activated ion channels in lactation and involution.
Stewart TA, Hughes K, et al. Journal of cell science 2021, Jan;134(1)
66. Leveraging Multi-Task Learning to Cope With Poor and Missing Labels of Mammograms.
Tardy M, Mateus D, et al. Frontiers in radiology 20211
65. Multiscale imaging of basal cell dynamics in the functionally mature mammary gland.
Stevenson AJ, Vanwalleghem G, et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Scienc 2020, Oct;117(43)
64. Outdoor air pollution and terminal duct lobular involution of the normal breast.
Niehoff NM, Keil AP, et al. Breast cancer research : BCR 2020, Sep;22(1)
63. Mutational Landscapes of Normal Breast During Age and Pregnancy Determine Cancer Risk
Cereser B., Tabassum N., et al. bioRxiv 2020, Sep;
62. A risk-associated Active transcriptome phenotype expressed by histologically normal human breast tissue and linked to a pro-tumorigenic adipocyte population.
Kang T, Yau C, et al. Breast cancer research : BCR 2020, Jul;22(1)
61. Breast Heterogeneity: Obstacles to Developing Universal Biomarkers of Breast Cancer Initiation and Progression.
Dirks RC, Burney HN, et al. Journal of the American College of Surgeons 2020, Jul;231(1)
60. Estimating breast tissue-specific DNA methylation age using next-generation sequencing data.
Castle JR, Lin N, et al. Clinical epigenetics 2020, Mar;12(1)
59. A Computational Statistics Approach to Evaluate Blood Biomarkers for Breast Cancer Risk Stratification.
Oktay K, Santaliz-Casiano A, et al. Hormones & cancer 2020, Feb;11(1)
58. Characterization of weaning-induced breast involution in women: implications for young women's breast cancer.
Jindal S, Narasimhan J, et al. NPJ breast cancer 20206
57. Upregulation of lipid metabolism genes in the breast prior to cancer diagnosis.
Marino N, German R, et al. NPJ breast cancer 20206
56. Polygenic risk score for the prediction of breast cancer is related to lesser terminal duct lobular unit involution of the breast.
Bodelon C, Oh H, et al. NPJ breast cancer 20206
55. Flower isoforms promote competitive growth in cancer.
Madan E, Pelham CJ, et al. Nature 2019, Aug;572(7768)
54. Dual TGFβ/BMP Pathway Inhibition Enables Expansion and Characterization of Multiple Epithelial Cell Types of the Normal and Cancerous Breast.
Prasad M, Kumar B, et al. Molecular cancer research : MCR 2019, Jul;17(7)
53. Death effector domain-containing protein induces vulnerability to cell cycle inhibition in triple-negative breast cancer.
Ni Y, Schmidt KR, et al. Nature communications 2019, Jun;10(1)
52. Free Fatty Acids Rewire Cancer Metabolism in Obesity-Associated Breast Cancer via Estrogen Receptor and mTOR Signaling.
Madak-Erdogan Z, Band S, et al. Cancer research 2019, May;79(10)
51. Genetic Ancestry-dependent Differences in Breast Cancer-induced Field Defects in the Tumor-adjacent Normal Breast.
Nakshatri H, Kumar B, et al. Clinical cancer research : an official journa 2019, May;25(9)
50. Pregnancy Hypertension and a Commonly Inherited IGF1R Variant (rs2016347) Reduce Breast Cancer Risk by Enhancing Mammary Gland Involution.
Powell MJ, Dufault SM, et al. Journal of oncology 20192019
49. Normal Breast-Derived Epithelial Cells with Luminal and Intrinsic Subtype-Enriched Gene Expression Document Interindividual Differences in Their Differentiation Cascade.
Kumar B, Prasad M, et al. Cancer research 2018, Sep;78(17)
48. Increased epigenetic age in normal breast tissue from luminal breast cancer patients.
Hofstatter EW, Horvath S, et al. Clinical epigenetics 2018, Aug;10(1)
47. Serum insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I and IGF binding protein-3 in relation to terminal duct lobular unit involution of the normal breast in Caucasian and African American women: The Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank.
Oh H, Pfeiffer RM, et al. International journal of cancer 2018, Aug;143(3)
46. Applying the Health Belief Model and an Integrated Behavioral Model to Promote Breast Tissue Donation Among Asian Americans.
Shafer A, Kaufhold K, et al. Health communication 2018, Jul;33(7)
45. Analytical Pipeline for Discovery and Verification of Glycoproteins from Plasma-Derived Extracellular Vesicles as Breast Cancer Biomarkers.
Chen IH, Aguilar HA, et al. Analytical chemistry 2018, May;90(10)
44. Development of a New Monochrome Multiplex qPCR Method for Relative Telomere Length Measurement in Cancer.
Dahlgren PN, Bishop K, et al. Neoplasia (New York, N.Y.) 2018, May;20(5)
43. Triple-Negative Breast Cancer, Stem Cells, and African Ancestry.
Jiagge E, Chitale D, et al. The American journal of pathology 2018, Feb;188(2)
42. A plasma telomeric cell-free DNA level in unaffected women with BRCA1 or/and BRCA2 mutations: a pilot study.
Dey S, Marino N, et al. Oncotarget 2018, Jan;9(3)
41. Inflammatory signatures distinguish metabolic health in African American women with obesity.
Denis GV, Sebastiani P, et al. PloS one 201813(5)
40. African American Women's Perspectives on Donating Healthy Breast Tissue for Research: Implications for Recruitment.
Ridley-Merriweather KE, Head KJ, et al. Health communication 2017, Dec;32(12)
39. Relationships Among Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes, and Plasma Cytokines in African American Women.
Denis GV, Sebastiani P, et al. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) 2017, Nov;25(11)
38. Heterogeneous drug penetrance of veliparib and carboplatin measured in triple negative breast tumors.
Bartelink IH, Prideaux B, et al. Breast cancer research : BCR 2017, Sep;19(1)
37. Alterations in the Immune Cell Composition in Premalignant Breast Tissue that Precede Breast Cancer Development.
Degnim AC, Hoskin TL, et al. Clinical cancer research : an official journa 2017, Jul;23(14)
36. Normal breast tissue DNA methylation differences at regulatory elements are associated with the cancer risk factor age.
Johnson KC, Houseman EA, et al. Breast cancer research : BCR 2017, Jul;19(1)
35. DNA methylation age is elevated in breast tissue of healthy women.
Sehl ME, Henry JE, et al. Breast cancer research and treatment 2017, Jul;164(1)
34. Phosphoproteins in extracellular vesicles as candidate markers for breast cancer.
Chen IH, Xue L, et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Scienc 2017, Mar;114(12)
33. Association between breast cancer genetic susceptibility variants and terminal duct lobular unit involution of the breast.
Bodelon C, Oh H, et al. International journal of cancer 2017, Feb;140(4)
32. DNA methylation differences at regulatory elements are associated with the cancer risk factor age in normal breast tissue.
Kevin C. Johnson, E. Andres Houseman, et al. bioRxiv 2017, Jan;
31. Dual PI3K and Wnt pathway inhibition is a synergistic combination against triple negative breast cancer.
Solzak JP, Atale RV, et al. NPJ breast cancer 20173
30. Asian American women’s perspectives on donating healthy breast tissue: implications for recruitment methods and messaging.
Ridley-Merriweather KE, , et al. Doctoral dissertation 2016, Dec;
29. Tissue-specific Co-expression of Long Non-coding and Coding RNAs Associated with Breast Cancer.
Wu W, Wagner EK, et al. Scientific reports 2016, Sep;6
28. Ages at menarche- and menopause-related genetic variants in relation to terminal duct lobular unit involution in normal breast tissue.
Oh H, Bodelon C, et al. Breast cancer research and treatment 2016, Jul;158(2)
27. Breast cancer risk variants at 6q25 display different phenotype associations and regulate ESR1, RMND1 and CCDC170.
Dunning AM, Michailidou K, et al. Nature genetics 2016, Apr;48(4)
26. Aberrant reduction of telomere repetitive sequences in plasma cell-free DNA for early breast cancer detection.
Wu X, Tanaka H, et al. Oncotarget 2015, Oct;6(30)
25. Ethnicity-Dependent and -Independent Heterogeneity in Healthy Normal Breast Hierarchy Impacts Tumor Characterization.
Nakshatri H, Anjanappa M, et al. Scientific reports 2015, Aug;5
24. Aberrant methylation of imprinted genes is associated with negative hormone receptor status in invasive breast cancer.
Barrow TM, Barault L, et al. International journal of cancer 2015, Aug;137(3)
23. Whole-genome bisulfite sequencing of cell-free DNA identifies signature associated with metastatic breast cancer.
Legendre C, Gooden GC, et al. Clinical epigenetics 20157(1)
22. Motivations, concerns, and experiences of women who donate normal breast tissue.
Doherty EF, MacGeorge EL, et al. Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention 2015, Jan;24(1)
21. Circulating sex hormones and terminal duct lobular unit involution of the normal breast.
Khodr ZG, Sherman ME, et al. Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention 2014, Dec;23(12)
20. Parent-of-origin-specific allelic associations among 106 genomic loci for age at menarche.
Perry JR, Day F, et al. Nature 2014, Oct;514(7520)
19. Terminal duct lobular unit involution of the normal breast: implications for breast cancer etiology.
Figueroa JD, Pfeiffer RM, et al. Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2014, Oct;106(10)
18. Cancer impacts microRNA expression, release and function in cardiac and skeletal muscle.
Daohong Chen, Chirayu P Goswami, et al. aacr journals 2014, Jun;
17. The molecular landscape of the normal human breast--defining normal.
Hilton HN, Graham JD, et al. Breast cancer research : BCR 2014, Jun;16(3)
16. Phenotypic plasticity in normal breast derived epithelial cells.
Sauder CA, Koziel JE, et al. BMC cell biology 2014, Jun;15
15. Immune cell quantitation in normal breast tissue lobules with and without lobulitis.
Degnim AC, Brahmbhatt RD, et al. Breast cancer research and treatment 2014, Apr;144(3)
14. Postpartum breast involution reveals regression of secretory lobules mediated by tissue-remodeling.
Jindal S, Gao D, et al. Breast cancer research : BCR 2014, Mar;16(2)
13. Next-generation transcriptome sequencing of the premenopausal breast epithelium using specimens from a normal human breast tissue bank.
Pardo I, Lillemoe HA, et al. Breast cancer research : BCR 2014, Mar;16(2)
12. KIF14 promotes AKT phosphorylation and contributes to chemoresistance in triple-negative breast cancer.
Singel SM, Cornelius C, et al. Neoplasia (New York, N.Y.) 2014, Mar;16(3)
11. Characterizing the heterogeneity of triple-negative breast cancers using microdissected normal ductal epithelium and RNA-sequencing.
Radovich M, Clare SE, et al. Breast cancer research and treatment 2014, Jan;143(1)
10. Molecular profiling of human mammary gland links breast cancer risk to a p27(+) cell population with progenitor characteristics.
Choudhury S, Almendro V, et al. Cell stem cell 2013, Jul;13(1)
9. Potential roles of microRNAs in regulating long intergenic noncoding RNAs.
Juan L, Wang G, et al. BMC medical genomics 20136 Suppl 1(Suppl 1)
8. Sensitive PCR-based quantitation of cell-free circulating microRNAs.
Hastings ML, Palma J, et al. Methods (San Diego, Calif.) 2012, Oct;58(2)
7. Telomere fusions in early human breast carcinoma.
Tanaka H, Abe S, et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Scienc 2012, Aug;109(35)
6. Histologic findings in normal breast tissues: comparison to reduction mammaplasty and benign breast disease tissues.
Degnim AC, Visscher DW, et al. Breast cancer research and treatment 2012, May;133(1)
5. The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Cancer Center: a unique resource for defining the "molecular histology" of the breast.
Sherman ME, Figueroa JD, et al. Cancer prevention research (Philadelphia, Pa. 2012, Apr;5(4)
4. Plasma components affect accuracy of circulating cancer-related microRNA quantitation.
Kim DJ, Linnstaedt S, et al. The Journal of molecular diagnostics : JMD 2012, Jan;14(1)
3. Persistent upregulation of U6:SNORD44 small RNA ratio in the serum of breast cancer patients.
Appaiah HN, Goswami CP, et al. Breast cancer research : BCR 2011, Sep;13(5)
2. A large, consistent plasma proteomics data set from prospectively collected breast cancer patient and healthy volunteer samples.
Riley CP, Zhang X, et al. Journal of translational medicine 2011, May;9
1. Preliminary Evaluation of a Fully-Automated Quantitative Framework for Characterizing General Breast Tissue Histology via Color Histogram and Color Texture Analysis
Brad M. Keller, Aimilia Gastounioti, et al.
About the Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank
The Komen Tissue Bank is the only repository in the world for normal breast tissue and matched serum, plasma, and DNA. We are transforming breast cancer research by offering normal, high-quality, richly annotated tissue samples to scientists worldwide.
