title: Migratory gene expression signature predicts poor patient outcome: are cancer stem cells to blame?
abstract: Breast cancer metastasis accounts for the majority of deaths from this disease. In the previous issue of Breast Cancer Research, Patsialou and colleagues used a novel in vivo invasion assay to capture migrating breast cancer cells and demonstrate that the gene expression signature of these cells predicts breast cancer metastasis in a large cohort of patients. Furthermore, specific genes identified play a functional role in the invasion of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells and in patient-derived breast tumors. These genes regulate pathways known to be induced in invasion and metastases and play an important role in the regulation of cancer stem cells.
authors.forename: Max S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Wicha
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans