Abstract
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and distant site metastasis is the main cause of death in breast cancer patients. There is increasing evidence supporting the role of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in tumor cell progression, invasion, and metastasis. During the process of EMT, epithelial cancer cells acquire molecular alternations that facilitate the loss of epithelial features and gain of mesenchymal phenotype. Such transformation promotes cancer cell migration and invasion. Moreover, emerging evidence suggests that EMT is associated with the increased enrichment of cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) and these CSCs display mesenchymal characteristics that are resistant to chemotherapy and target therapy. However, the clinical relevance of EMT in human cancer is still under debate. This review will provide an overview of current evidence of EMT from studies using clinical human breast cancer tissues and its associated challenges.
Highlights
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and ranks second among cancer deaths in women
These results suggested that a single cell may be undergoing into cluster characterize epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from breast cancer patients [30]
A recent study from Xue et al showed that the mechanism of TGF-β-induced EMT in breast cancer cells is via the FOXM1 transactivation of Slug through the Smad pathway [55]
Summary
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and ranks second among cancer deaths in women. Med. 2016, 5, 13 metastasis suggests that a small subpopulation of cancer cells acquires cancer stem-like cell (CSCs) traits [12], exhibits mesenchymal cell characteristics, and migrates away from the primary tumor site and progresses to distant metastatic sites [13]. Demonstrating EMT in human cancer is complicated by the fact that most tissue samples obtained from human tumors were taken at various time points—either from primary or metastatic sites The tissues from these sites may have either not yet undergone EMT or undergone the reverse process of mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET) [16,17,18,19], respectively. We will focus on discussing characteristics of EMT that may be evaluated in clinical samples for accessing EMT initiation and determining tumor progression in breast cancer
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
