Prognostic and Predictive Significance of Breast Cancer Stem Cells

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

ACTA CHIRURGICA LATVIENSIS 2011 (11) 122 and genes, and usage of the same signaling pathways. At the same time, differences among normal and CSC lies in ability of the latter to metastastatic ability, tumorigenic activities and resistance to chemotherapy (24). Breast cancer stem cells are thought to be identifiable possessing markers CD44+/CD24 -/low . However, their numbers vary significantly among tumors, they are not regarded as specific for BCSC, rather for certain histological type (4). They are characterized by CD44+/ CD24 -/low /ESA+ markers, and lineage (lack of expression CD2, CD3, CD10, CD16, CD18, CD31, CD64 and CD 140b). As few as 200 of these subpopulation of cells are able to form tumors injected into NOD/SCID mice, and CD44+/CD24-phenotype has been used extensively to identify cancer cells known for they capability to give rise to tumors in mice. Breast tumor cells positive for ALDH are able to generate tumors with phenotype resembling parental one, therefore CD44+/ CD24-/ALDH+ phenotype increases even more the tumorigenicity of breast cancer cells, in comparison with CD44+/CD24-or ALDH+ alone (10). As far as experimental models are clarified, it seems not to be so clear-cut in human breast cancers (27). Nevertheless, BCSC seems to be intriguing topic for prognostic and predictive purposes in breast cancer.