Abstract
Globally, breast cancer has remained the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among women. Breast cancer is a highly heterogeneous and phenotypically diverse group of diseases, which require different selection of treatments. Breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs), a small subset of cancer cells with stem cell-like properties, play essential roles in breast cancer progression, recurrence, metastasis, chemoresistance and treatments. Epigenetics is defined as inheritable changes in gene expression without alteration in DNA sequence. Epigenetic regulation includes DNA methylation and demethylation, as well as histone modifications. Aberrant epigenetic regulation results in carcinogenesis. In this review, the mechanism of epigenetic regulation involved in carcinogenesis, therapeutic resistance and metastasis of BCSCs will be discussed, and finally, the therapies targeting these biomarkers will be presented.
Highlights
Breast cancer has remained the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among women [1]
This study indicates that SOX21-AS1 regulates properties and carcinogenesis of Breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) via targeting SOX2 [117]
The proteins and ncRNAs involved in epigenetic regulation in breast cancer cells and BCSCs described above represent potential and promising therapeutic targets, and the development of therapies are under investigation or in clinical trials (Table 2)
Summary
Breast cancer has remained the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among women [1]. Gene expression studies have identified six distinct molecular subtypes for breast cancer, which characterize distinct physiological presentation, gene expression profile, prognosis and clinical outcomes [7,8,9]. These subtypes are classified according to the presence or absence of hormone (estrogen (ER) or progesterone (PR)) receptors (HR+/HR-) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2+/HER2-). BCSCs are characterized by the expression of cell surface markers, such as CD24−/low, CD44+ and epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM+) [15,16]. Since BCSCs play a critical role in carcinogenesis, proliferation and metastasis of breast cancer, targeting BCSCs represents an attractive therapeutic strategy for breast cancer
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