Contribution of Bone Marrow-Derived Cells to the Tumor Stroma in Human Breast Cancer

摘要

Breast cancer is a disease whose progression requires the involvement of many different cell types. These cell types, in addition to the mutated cancerous cells that initiate formation of the tumor mass, include non- cancerous blood vessel and connective tissue cells. These ancillary cell types, while not cancerous on their own, are required by the cancer cells in order for a tumor to grow beyond a very small size. Therefore, it is important to understand the interactions between these two cancerous and non-cancerous cellular components of a breast tumor mass, since such interactions may serve as novel targets for therapeutic intervention. The proposed work concerns the origins of the tumor-associated stroma.