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The Emerging Picture of Human Breast Cancer as a Stem Cell-based Disease

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Abstract

There are increasing data supporting the existence of a cell hierarchy within the mammary gland. At the top or this hierarchy a small population of cells with self-renewal properties maintains the tissue architecture and remodeling, and they are known as stem cells. Also, recent evidences indicate that breast cancer is originated and maintained by its own cancer stem cells reminding the normal mammary gland. The existence of this small population of cells with self-renewal capability has important biological and clinical significances. So, the interpretation of tumors as hierarchical cellular structures has changed our vision of the breast cancer scenario. Here, we review the current knowledge about normal and breast cancer stem cells, and their implications in cancer development, together with their consequences in breast cancer susceptibility, dissemination and treatment response.

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Acknowledgements

We apologize to many of our colleagues whose original work could not be cited due to space constrains.

J.P.L. is an investigator of the “Programa Ramón y Cajal” from the Spanish “Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia”; his work is partially supported by the “Fundación Samuel Solorzano”, “Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias” (PI070057), and “MEC Consolider-Ingenio 2010” (Ref. CSD2007-0017).

C.C. is a Spanish “Ramón y Cajal” investigator from the Spanish “Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia”. Research at C.C.’s lab is partially supported by Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (PI04/0261), Junta de Castilla y León (SA087A06), Fundación de Investigación MMA, and MEC Consolider-Ingenio 2010 (Ref. CSD2007-0017) projects.

R.G.S. work is partially supported by a grant from the “Fundación de Investigación Médica Mutua Madrileña Automovilista (MMA)”, SAF2007-66394 and MEC Consolider-Ingenio 2010 (Ref. CSD2007-0017).

I.S.G.’s research is supported partially by FEDER and by MEC (SAF2006-03726 and PETRI No. 95-0913.OP), Junta de Castilla y León (CSI03A05), FIS (PI050087, PI050116), Fundación de Investigación MMA, Federación de Cajas de Ahorro Castilla y León (I Convocatoria de Ayudas para Proyectos de Investigación Biosanitaria con Células Madre), CDTEAM project (CENIT-Ingenio 2010) and MEC Consolider-Ingenio 2010 (Ref. CSD2007-0017). J.J.C., R.G.S. and I.S.G. belong to the GR15 group sponsored by JCyL.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    César Cobaleda

  2. Cátedra-Servicio de Oncología Médica, Hospital Universitario de Salamanca–Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Juan Jesús Cruz

  3. Departamento de Medicina, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Salamanca, Campus Miguel de Unamuno s/n, 37007, Salamanca, Spain

    Juan Jesús Cruz, Rogelio González-Sarmiento & Jesús Pérez-Losada

  4. Experimental Therapeutics and Translational Oncology Program, Instituto de Biología, Molecular y Celular del Cáncer, CSIC/Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

    Rogelio González-Sarmiento & Isidro Sánchez-García

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  1. César Cobaleda
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  2. Juan Jesús Cruz
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Correspondence to Jesús Pérez-Losada.

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Cobaleda, C., Cruz, J.J., González-Sarmiento, R. et al. The Emerging Picture of Human Breast Cancer as a Stem Cell-based Disease. Stem Cell Rev 4, 67–79 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12015-008-9012-6

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