Breast cancer stem cells: An overview

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Abstract

The theory that cancer may be originated and sustained by a small proportion of stem-like, self-renewing cells (termed ‘cancer stem cells’) has gained support in recent years. Breast cancer stem cells have been identified as CD44+CD24 breast tumour cells and have recently been isolated and propagated in vitro. It has been demonstrated that these cells exclusively retain the ability to form new tumours in mouse models and that they display stem/progenitor cell properties. The ability to identify breast cancer stem cells in vivo and to propagate them in vitro provides the means to compare them with normal cells, in order to investigate from which cell they originate, which molecular alterations critically affect them, and how they interact with the microenvironment. Elucidation of these critical points is essential to develop new therapeutic strategies and to improve diagnosis and prognosis for breast cancer patients.

Section snippets

Mammary stem cells

Terminal duct lobular units (TDLUs) are the basic functional/structural components of the branching ductal–alveolar system in the resting human mammary gland of premenopausal women, where luminal/ductal epithelial cells line the inner surface and myoepithelial cells form the outer basal layer.

There is robust evidence that both luminal and myoepithelial cell types originate from a common multipotent progenitor cell. It was demonstrated decades ago that fragments of mouse mammary gland could

Breast cancer stem cells

That cancer may be a stem cell disease is not a new concept; a stem cell origin for cancer was proposed and subsequently abandoned decades ago, probably because research facilities available at that time in the field of stem cell biology were not adequate to support the theory with convincing experimental evidence.11, 12, 13 It was only in the last few years that technological improvements, together with a critical reappraisal of data collected previously, have made scientists reassess the

Conclusion

A growing body of evidence supports the notion that breast cancer may arise from mutated mammary stem/progenitor cells, which have been termed ‘breast cancer stem cells’ because of their exclusive ability to sustain tumour formation and growth. Breast cancer stem cells have been identified based on the expression of their CD44+CD24−/low membrane phenotype and they have been demonstrated to have stem/progenitor cell properties. More recently, breast cancer stem cells have been isolated and

Conflict of interest statement

None declared.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported financially in part by AIRC (Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro).

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