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Switching on the invasion programme in normal breast cells also gave them stem cell properties, linking two ideas about how cancers spread and resist treatment, and suggesting that the mobile cells that seed metastases are the same ones that can regrow a tumour.
Mani, Weinberg and colleagues induced an epithelial-mesenchymal transition in immortalised human mammary epithelial cells by expressing the transcription factors Snail or Twist or by exposing them to TGF-beta1. The cells acquired a mesenchymal appearance, a CD44-high CD24-low surface profile matching that of breast cancer stem cells, and a much greater ability to form mammospheres and colonies. Conversely, stem-like cells isolated from normal and cancerous breast tissue expressed EMT markers. The paper connected the EMT and cancer stem cell fields.
This paper is why metastasis, stemness and therapy resistance are now studied as one problem. It suggests that the cells most able to spread are also the ones most able to regrow, and it motivates therapies that target the mesenchymal or stem-like state.
Shares Kalluri and Weinberg 2009: the basics of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, Metastasis, TGF-β signalling, Epithelial-mesenchymal transition & drug efflux.
Shares Al-Hajj 2003: prospective identification of tumorigenic breast cancer cells, Epithelial-mesenchymal transition & drug efflux, Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer.
Shares Kalluri and Weinberg 2009: the basics of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, Metastasis, Epithelial-mesenchymal transition & drug efflux.
Shares Al-Hajj 2003: prospective identification of tumorigenic breast cancer cells, Stem cell.
Shares Kalluri and Weinberg 2009: the basics of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, Metastasis, TGF-β signalling, Epithelial-mesenchymal transition & drug efflux.
Shares David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer.
Shares Metastasis, Epithelial-mesenchymal transition & drug efflux.
Shares Epithelial-mesenchymal transition & drug efflux, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer.