Prognostic Value of Cancer Stem Cells Markers in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

Abstract

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has a significant clinical relevance of being associated with a shorter median time to relapse and death and does not respond to endocrine therapy or other available targeted agents. Increased aggressiveness of this tumor, as well as resistance to standard drug therapies, may be associated with the presence of stem cell populations within the tumor. Several stemness markers have been described for the various histological subtypes of breast cancer, such as CD44, CD24, CD133, ALDH1, and ABCG2. The role of these markers in breast cancer is not clear yet and above all there are conflicting opinions about their real prognostic value. To investigate the role of CSCs markers in TNBC cancerogenesis and tumor progression, we selected 160 TNBCs samples on which we detected protein expression of CD44, CD24, CD133, ALDH1, and ABCG2 by immunohistochemistry. Our results highlighted a real prognostic role only for CD44 in TNBCs. All other CSCs markers do not appear to be related to the survival of TNBC patients. In conclusion, despite the fact that the presence of the cancer stem cells in the tumor provides important information on its potential aggressiveness, today their detection by immunohistochemistry is not sufficient to confirm their role in carcinogenesis, because specific markers probably are not yet identified.

Evaluation of Breast Cancer Stem Cells and Intratumor Stemness Heterogeneity in Triple-negative Breast Cancer as Prognostic Factors

“…Here we did not find any association between ALDH1A1 expression and clinicopathologic features in TNBC. Although ALDH1 had a significant impact on prognosis in the other subtypes, it did not appear to correlate with the survival of TNBC patients 37-39. Here we showed a borderline significant trend of ALDH1A1+ phenotype for PFS.…”

Curcumin: a calixarene derivative micelle potentiates anti-breast cancer stem cells effects in xenografted, triple-negative breast cancer mouse models

“…Both CD44 and CD133 are often used as surface markers of BCSCs (Collina et al, 2015). Therefore, we checked the expression of CD44 and CD133 in cancer cells in tumors after treatment with 0.9% saline, empty micelles, curcumin or CPM in vivo.…”

MicroRNA signature in the chemoprevention of functionally-enriched stem and progenitor pools (FESPP) by Active Hexose Correlated Compound (AHCC)

“…18 Also, CD44 has previously been shown to predict the prognosis of TNBC, making it a useful marker for determining metastatic potential. 42 Flow cytometry analysis revealed an average of a 17.47% decrease of CD44 C /CD24 ¡ phenotype cells (representing CSCs) after 24 hours of exposure to 4 mg/ml of AHCC, in comparison to the control (Fig. 3a-c).…”