Neoplastic Immune Mimicry Potentiates Breast Tumor Progression.

ABSTRACT: Dedifferentiation programs are commonly enacted during breast cancer progression to enhance tumor cell fitness. Increased cellular plasticity within the neoplastic compartment of tumors correlates with disease aggressiveness, often culminating in greater resistance to cytotoxic therapies or augmented metastatic potential. In this study, we found that subpopulations of dedifferentiated neoplastic breast epithelial cells express canonical leukocyte cell surface receptor proteins and have thus named this cellular program "immune mimicry." Analysis of public human breast tumor single-cell RNA sequencing datasets and histopathologic breast tumor specimens, as well as functional experiments in vitro in breast cancer cell lines and in vivo in murine transgenic and cell line-derived mammary cancer

SUBMITTER: Berens EB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12694751 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature