During metastasis, migrating breast cancer stem cells undergo a loss of polarity leading to an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Gupta et al. (2009) use this attribute of cancer stem cells to develop a high-throughput screen, which successfully identifies small molecules that specifically inhibit cancer stem cell proliferation through the induction of differentiation.

The cancer stem cell hypothesis suggests that, unlike most cancer cells within a tumor, cancer stem cells resist chemotherapeutic drugs and can regenerate the various cell types in the tumor, thereby causing relapse of the disease. Thus, drugs that selectively target cancer stem cells offer great promise for cancer treatment, particularly in combination with chemotherapy. Here, we show that low...

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) pose a serious obstacle to cancer therapy as they can be responsible for poor prognosis and tumour relapse. In this study, we have investigated inhibitory activity of the ginger-derived compound 6-shogaol against breast cancer cells both in monolayer and in cancer-stem cell-like spheroid culture. The spheroids were generated from adherent breast cancer cells. 6-shogaol ...

Aberrant activation of Notch and Ras pathways has been detected in breast cancers. A synergy between these two pathways has also been shown in breast cell transformation in culture. Yet, the clinical relevance of Notch–Ras cooperation in breast cancer progression remains unexplored. In this study, we show that coordinate hyperactivation of Notch1 and Ras/MAPK pathways in breast cancer patient s...

the two stable isotopes of hydrogen, protium (1h) and deuterium (2h) differ in their physicochemical nature. deuterium-depleted water (ddw) significantly inhibited the growth rate of different tumor cell lines in culture media and xenotransplanted mda-mb-231, mcf-7 human breast adenocarcinomas and pc-3 human prostate tumors in vivo. the apoptosis-triggering effect of ddw was demonstrated both i...

Cancer stem cells are considered as the cell population which is responsible for chemoresistance and treatment failure in breast cancer patients. Therefore, it is urgent to explore the mechanism by which cancer stem cells survive under the treatment of chemotherapeutic drugs such as cisplatin. In this paper, we demonstrated significant decrease of miR-519d in breast cancer stem cells by quantit...

Accumulating evidence suggests that cancer stem cells—which make up only a small proportion of heterogeneous tumor cells—possess a greater ability to maintain tumor formation than other tumor cell types. It has been proposed that cancer stem cells have characteristics in common with normal stem cells from tumor-prone tissue. For instance, cancer stem cells can self-renew and simultaneously prod...

The feasibility and toxicity of allogeneic stem cell transplantation after nonmyeloablative conditioning including thiotepa, fludarabine, and cyclophosphamide have been investigated in 6 patients with breast cancer and 7 patients with renal cell cancer. The program included the use of escalating doses of donor lymphocyte infusions (DLI) and/or interferon alpha (IFNalpha) for patients showing no...

The stimulatory NKG2D receptor on lymphocytes promotes tumor immune surveillance by targeting ligands selectively induced on cancer cells. Progressing tumors counteract by employing tactics to disable lymphocyte NKG2D. This negative dynamic is escalated as some human cancer cells co-opt expression of NKG2D, thereby complementing the presence of its ligands for autonomous stimulation of oncogeni...

The cancer stem cell (CSC) potency of a series structurally analogous Group 10-azadiphosphine metal complexes is reported. comprise 10 (Ni for 1, Pd 2, or Pt 3), an azadiphosphine ligand, and two chloride ligands. exhibit micromolar towards bulk breast cells CSCs cultured in monolayer systems. cytotoxicity the comparable to better than clinically used metallopharmaceuticals, cisplatin carboplat...