GSTPi-positive tumour microenvironment-associated fibroblasts are significantly associated with GSTPi-negative cancer cells in paired cases of primary invasive breast cancer and axillary lymph node metastases

摘要

Background: Glutathione S-transferase Pi (GSTPi) expression is one of the factors, which is known to be associated with development of resistance to chemotherapeutics in cancer patients, including those with breast cancer. Yet, its expression has been reported to be undetectable in cancer cells in high percent of patients with primary breast cancer. However, GSTPi expression in stromal cells in breast tumour microenvironment, namely cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF), which is recognised to have major roles in cancer progression, remains poorly reported.