Epithelial-mesenchymal transition increases during the progression of in situ to invasive basal-like breast cancer

Expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition–related markers in triple-negative breast cancer: ZEB1 as a potential biomarker for poor clinical outcome

“…that EMT marker expression was more frequent in basal-like breast cancers and that their expression correlated with the expression of BCSC markers (CD44+/24-and ALDH1) [15].…”

“…All sections were subjected to heat-induced antigen retrieval process. Staining was optimized using positive and values in a previous study [15] were used except for E-cadherin (Supplementary Table S1). …”

Biomarkers for EMT and MET in breast cancer: An update

“…Furthermore, its reduced expression can also be associated with some non-lobular breast carcinomas of triple-negative phenotype such as metaplastic carcinomas (25,26). Choi et al analyses revealed that the loss of E-cadherin in invasive carcinoma is greater than in pure ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in basal-like subtype cancer (27). Recently, changes in the level of expression of different cadherins have been increasingly used to monitor EMT.…”

“…Prasad et al provided clinical evidence to support the upregulation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in invasive ductal carcinoma of breast (42). Choi et al reported a higher expression of β-catenin in invasive carcinomas than in pure DCIS, especially in basal-like subtype breast cancers (27). Moreover, the notable reduction of β-catenin expression and β-catenin/transcription factor 4 (TCF4) transcriptional activity by β-catenin short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) in HMLE cells expressing cyclin-dependent kinase-like 2 (CDKL2) resulted in decreased zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 expression level and promoter activity, as well as in increased E-cadherin expression and redistribution from the perinuclear region to the membrane (43).…”

SLUG: Critical regulator of epithelial cell identity in breast development and cancer

“…However, from these studies it is unclear whether SLUG endows cells with certain properties of stem cells, or fully converts them into bona fide stem cells. 55,56,72,75 Interestingly, other studies have recognized that during some developmental and disease processes a full EMT is not always achieved. Termed a partial EMT, cells in this phenotypic state often retain cell-cell junctions but acquire invasive and motile properties.…”