Age-related Differences in Spatially Resolved Transcriptomic Profiles of Patients With Hormone Receptor-positive Breast Carcinoma

Background/Aim: Patients' age may influence the response to chemotherapy and the clinical course of breast carcinoma. This study aimed to compare the spatial transcriptomic profiles between younger (≤50 years) and older (>50 years) patients with hormone receptor (HR)-positive breast carcinoma. Patients and Methods: Seven cases of breast carcinoma were included. We performed digital spatial profiling and bioinformatic analysis to investigate the spatial transcriptomes of the epithelial and stromal compartments. Results: In the epithelial compartment of three young-age breast carcinoma (YABC) cases, we found 21 up-regulated and 7 down-regulated genes. The top two most up-regulated genes were serpin peptidase inhibitor clade A member 1 and serine protease. The gene ontology enrichment analysis revealed a significant up-regulation of genes defining ribosomal structures and functions in YABCs. The gene set enrichment analysis revealed that gene sets defining early and late responses to estrogen, response to interferon-α, and tumor necrosis factor-α signaling were significantly enriched in YABCs. Conclusion: We described for the first time the age-related differences in spatially resolved transcriptomic profiles and up-regulated transcriptional pathways of HR-positive breast carcinoma. Our observations highlight the critical need for age-specific treatment strategies for breast carcinoma management.