Basal-like traits not required for highly invasive breast tumors

摘要

Increasing evidence suggests that the two most common human breast cancer subtypes, luminal and basal-like, both originate from the luminal epithelial lineage. Jiyoung Kim et al. (pp. 6124-6129) explored this common origin to determine why only one of the subtypes-basal-like cells-typically, mediate the most aggressive cancer behaviors, such as the invasion of adjacent tissue. The authors explored whether luminal-like breast cancer cells must first become basal-like to initiate tumors and spread, or if perhaps luminally differentiated cells within basal cell tumors are themselves tumorigenic.