Delineation of breast cancer cell hierarchy identifies the subset responsible for dormancy.

ABSTRACT: The bone marrow (BM) is a major organ of breast cancer (BC) dormancy and a common source of BC resurgence. Gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) between BC cells (BCCs) and BM stroma facilitates dormancy. This study reports on a hierarchy of BCCs with the most immature subset (Oct4(hi)/CD44(hi/med)/CD24(-/+)) demonstrating chemoresistance, dormancy, and stem cell properties: self-renewal, serial passaging ability, cycling quiescence, long doubling time, asymmetric division, high metastatic and invasive capability. In vitro and in vivo studies indicated that this subset was responsible for GJIC with BM stroma. Similar BCCs were detected in the blood of patients despite aggressive treatment and in a patient with a relatively large tumor but no lymph node involvement. In brief, th

SUBMITTER: Patel SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3510468 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature