P-Cadherin Linking Breast Cancer Stem Cells and Invasion: A Promising Marker to Identify an "Intermediate/Metastable" EMT State.

摘要: Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (also known as EMT) is a fundamental mechanism occurring during embryonic development and tissue differentiation, being also crucial for cancer progression. Actually, the EMT program contributes to dissemination of cells from solid tumors formation micro-metastasis that subsequently develop into clinically detectable metastases. Besides process defined by progressive loss epithelial cell characteristics acquisition mesenchymal features, has been implicated in therapy resistance, immune escape, maintenance stem properties, such self-renewal capacity. However, majority studies usually neglect alterations intermediate states, which imply range phenotypic cellular heterogeneity can potentially generate more metastable plastic tumor cells. In fact, few have tried identify these transitory partly due current lack detailed understanding EMT, well reliable readouts its Herein, brief review evidences presented, showing P-cadherin expression, already identified breast marker invasive promoter, probably able an state associated with phenotype. This hypothesis based on our own work, results described others, suggest use promising marker, clearly functioning important clinical prognostic factor putative therapeutic target carcinogenesis.