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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2024.1503021
This article is part of the Research Topic Unraveling Breast Cancer Complexity: Insights from Single-Cell Sequencing and Spatial Transcriptomics View all 7 articles

Extracellular matrix shapes cancer stem cell behavior in breast cancer: A mini review

Provisionally accepted
Lei Li Lei Li 1YIDAN TANG YIDAN TANG 2Ling Qiu Ling Qiu 1*Zhengrui Li Zhengrui Li 3Ruo Wang Ruo Wang 4*
  • 1 Department of Laboratory Medicine, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
  • 2 Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
  • 3 School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
  • 4 Comprehensive Breast Health Center, Ruijin Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Today, cancer has become one of the leading global tragedies. It occurs when a small number of cells in the body mutate, causing some of them to evade the body's immune system and proliferate uncontrollably.Even more irritating is the fact that patients with cancers frequently relapse after conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy, leading to additional suffering. Scientists thereby presume that cancer stem cells (CSCs) are the underlying cause of metastasis and recurrence. In recent years, it was shown that not only can chemotherapy and radiotherapy underperform in the treatment of breast cancer, but they can also increase the number of breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs) that transform regular breast cancer cells into their own population. Such data somewhat support the aforementioned hypothesis. Meanwhile, our understanding of the extracellular matrix (ECM) has changed considerably over the last decade. A lot of studies have bit by bit complemented human knowledge regarding how the ECM greatly shapes the behaviors of BCSCs. In this review, we highlighted the influence on BCSCs exerted by different critical components and biochemical properties of ECM.

    Keywords: Extracellular Matrix, cancer stem cells, breast cancer, ECM, BCSCs

    Received: 27 Sep 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Li, TANG, Qiu, Li and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Ling Qiu, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100021, China
    Ruo Wang, Comprehensive Breast Health Center, Ruijin Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.