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BIBTEX RIS

The more things change ... the more things change: developmental plasticity of tumor-initiating mammary epithelial cells

2010; BioMed Central; Volume: 12; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1186/bcr2459

ISSN

1465-542X

Autores

Michael T. Lewis,

Tópico(s)

Wnt/β-catenin signaling in development and cancer

Resumo

In our haste to fi nd and eliminate breast cancer stem cells, it appears as though we may have missed something. Contrary to current thought, a recent paper by Meyer and colleagues demonstrates developmental plasticity of breast cancer cells with respect to the CD24 cell surface marker, such that CD44(pos);CD24(pos) and CD44(pos);CD24(low/-) cells are able to give rise to one another in an activin/nodal-dependent manner, and that cells derived from single cells of either phenotype are capable of forming tumors as xenografts. If confirmed clinically, these data imply that simply targeting the CD44(pos);CD24(low/-) breast cancer stem cell for breast cancer treatment may be destined to fail unless this plasticity is taken into account and prevented.

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