Breast Cancer Stem Cell Membrane Biomarkers: Therapy Targeting and Clinical Implications
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting women worldwide. Importantly, there have been significant improvements in prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment options, which resulted in a significant decrease in breast cancer mortality rates. Nevertheless, the high rates of incidence com...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-03-01
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| Series: | Cells |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/11/6/934 |
| _version_ | 1797472353719943168 |
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| author | Inês Conde Ana Sofia Ribeiro Joana Paredes |
| author_facet | Inês Conde Ana Sofia Ribeiro Joana Paredes |
| author_sort | Inês Conde |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting women worldwide. Importantly, there have been significant improvements in prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment options, which resulted in a significant decrease in breast cancer mortality rates. Nevertheless, the high rates of incidence combined with therapy resistance result in cancer relapse and metastasis, which still contributes to unacceptably high mortality of breast cancer patients. In this context, a small subpopulation of highly tumourigenic cancer cells within the tumour bulk, commonly designated as breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs), have been suggested as key elements in therapy resistance, which are responsible for breast cancer relapses and distant metastasis. Thus, improvements in BCSC-targeting therapies are crucial to tackling the metastatic progression and might allow therapy resistance to be overcome. However, the design of effective and specific BCSC-targeting therapies has been challenging since there is a lack of specific biomarkers for BCSCs, and the most common clinical approaches are designed for commonly altered BCSCs signalling pathways. Therefore, the search for a new class of BCSC biomarkers, such as the expression of membrane proteins with cancer stem cell potential, is an area of clinical relevance, once membrane proteins are accessible on the cell surface and easily recognized by specific antibodies. Here, we discuss the significance of BCSC membrane biomarkers as potential prognostic and therapeutic targets, reviewing the CSC-targeting therapies under clinical trials for breast cancer. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T20:01:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1747e7d86bf44212a26430e1be351d32 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4409 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T20:01:36Z |
| publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cells |
| spelling | doaj.art-1747e7d86bf44212a26430e1be351d322023-11-24T00:43:32ZengMDPI AGCells2073-44092022-03-0111693410.3390/cells11060934Breast Cancer Stem Cell Membrane Biomarkers: Therapy Targeting and Clinical ImplicationsInês Conde0Ana Sofia Ribeiro1Joana Paredes2i3S, Institute of Investigation and Innovation in Health, 4200-135 Porto, Portugali3S, Institute of Investigation and Innovation in Health, 4200-135 Porto, Portugali3S, Institute of Investigation and Innovation in Health, 4200-135 Porto, PortugalBreast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting women worldwide. Importantly, there have been significant improvements in prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment options, which resulted in a significant decrease in breast cancer mortality rates. Nevertheless, the high rates of incidence combined with therapy resistance result in cancer relapse and metastasis, which still contributes to unacceptably high mortality of breast cancer patients. In this context, a small subpopulation of highly tumourigenic cancer cells within the tumour bulk, commonly designated as breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs), have been suggested as key elements in therapy resistance, which are responsible for breast cancer relapses and distant metastasis. Thus, improvements in BCSC-targeting therapies are crucial to tackling the metastatic progression and might allow therapy resistance to be overcome. However, the design of effective and specific BCSC-targeting therapies has been challenging since there is a lack of specific biomarkers for BCSCs, and the most common clinical approaches are designed for commonly altered BCSCs signalling pathways. Therefore, the search for a new class of BCSC biomarkers, such as the expression of membrane proteins with cancer stem cell potential, is an area of clinical relevance, once membrane proteins are accessible on the cell surface and easily recognized by specific antibodies. Here, we discuss the significance of BCSC membrane biomarkers as potential prognostic and therapeutic targets, reviewing the CSC-targeting therapies under clinical trials for breast cancer.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/11/6/934breast cancer stem cellscell membrane biomarkerstargeted therapiestranslational oncobiology |
| spellingShingle | Inês Conde Ana Sofia Ribeiro Joana Paredes Breast Cancer Stem Cell Membrane Biomarkers: Therapy Targeting and Clinical Implications Cells breast cancer stem cells cell membrane biomarkers targeted therapies translational oncobiology |
| title | Breast Cancer Stem Cell Membrane Biomarkers: Therapy Targeting and Clinical Implications |
| title_full | Breast Cancer Stem Cell Membrane Biomarkers: Therapy Targeting and Clinical Implications |
| title_fullStr | Breast Cancer Stem Cell Membrane Biomarkers: Therapy Targeting and Clinical Implications |
| title_full_unstemmed | Breast Cancer Stem Cell Membrane Biomarkers: Therapy Targeting and Clinical Implications |
| title_short | Breast Cancer Stem Cell Membrane Biomarkers: Therapy Targeting and Clinical Implications |
| title_sort | breast cancer stem cell membrane biomarkers therapy targeting and clinical implications |
| topic | breast cancer stem cells cell membrane biomarkers targeted therapies translational oncobiology |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/11/6/934 |
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