HCC187 Cells

HCC1187 is a human breast carcinoma cell line established from a primary ductal breast tumor of an adult patient. It exhibits a triple-negative phenotype, lacking expression of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and HER2, which is characteristic of basal-like breast cancers. HCC1187 is part of a panel of cell lines developed to represent the molecular diversity of breast cancers, and has been extensively profiled in multiple large-scale genomic and proteomic studies including the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)-aligned analyses.

This cell line displays complex genomic alterations commonly observed in high-grade breast tumors, such as copy number variations and a high burden of somatic mutations. Proteomic analyses reveal that HCC1187 has a proteomic profile aligned with basal-like breast tumors, including elevated expression of cytokeratins associated with basal epithelial cells and low levels of luminal markers. Quantitative proteomics also show that HCC1187 clusters with other triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) lines based on pathway-level protein expression, demonstrating dysregulation in pathways related to DNA damage repair, cell cycle progression, and apoptosis. These properties position HCC1187 as a valuable model for studying TNBC biology and testing targeted therapeutics for basal-like or BRCA1-deficient breast cancer subtypes.

HCC1187 has also been included in comprehensive mutational studies of breast cancer, contributing to the understanding of mutation frequency patterns and the landscape of driver versus passenger mutations. Studies have shown that although individual tumors harbor numerous mutations, only a subset significantly contributes to cancer progression. In HCC1187, several such driver mutations and pathway alterations have been identified, making it a key model for exploring the genetic basis of tumorigenesis and for developing personalized therapeutic approaches.