Inducible formation of breast cancer stem cells and their dynamic equilibrium with non-stem cancer cells via IL6 secretion

Tumors are often heterogeneous, being composed of multiple cell types with different phenotypic and molecular properties. Cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) are a highly tumorigenic cell type found in developmentally diverse tumors or cancer cell lines, and they are often resistant to standard chemotherapeutic drugs. The origins of CSCs and their relationships to nonstem cancer cells (NSCCs) are poorly understood. In an inducible breast oncogenesis model, CSCs are generated from nontransformed cells at a specific time during the transformation process, but CSC formation is not required for transformation. MicroRNA profiles indicate that CSCs and NSCCs are related, but different cell types arising from a common…