Expression of Stem Cell and Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition Markers in Circulating Tumor Cells of Breast Cancer Patients

Overview

Journal Biomed Res Int

Publisher Wiley

Specialties Biomedical Engineering
Biotechnology
General Medicine

Date 2014 Jun 5

PMID 24895575

Citations 49

Authors

Natalia Krawczyk

Franziska Meier-Stiegen

Malgorzata Banys

Hans Neubauer

Eugen Ruckhaeberle

Tanja Fehm

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Evaluation and characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have become a major focus of translational cancer research. Presence of CTCs predicts worse clinical outcome in early and metastatic breast cancer. Whether all cells from the primary tumor have potential to disseminate and form subsequent metastasis remains unclear. As part of the metastatic cascade, tumor cells lose their cell-to-cell adhesion and undergo epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in order to enter blood circulation. During EMT epithelial antigens are downregulated; thus, such tumor cells might elude classical epithelial marker-based detection. Several researchers postulated that some CTCs express stem cell-like phenotype; this might lead to chemoresistance and enhanced metastatic potential of such cells. In the present review, we discuss current data on EMT and stem cell markers in CTCs of breast cancer and their clinical significance.

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